Bullying

         We hear so much about the cruelty of bullying.  There are many helpful books that explore this important topic.  Here are two which pair nicely together and which I think are really good.

Bystander by James Preller

         Most of us are not bullies, but are likely to be bystanders.  We see and hear someone being bullied, but we try to ignore it…to not get involved… and we don’t stand up to the bully.

         Eric is the new kid in seventh grade. Griffin wants to be his friend. When you’re new in town, it’s hard to know who to hang out with—and who to avoid. Griffin seems cool, confident, and popular. But something isn’t right about Griffin. He always seems to be in the middle of bad things. And if Griffin doesn't like you, you’d better watch your back. There might be a target on it.
       As Eric gets drawn deeper into Griffin’s dark world, he begins to see the truth about Griffin: He’s a liar, a bully, a thief.  Eric discovers there are consequences to standing by and watching as the bully hurts people. In one shocking moment, Eric goes from being a bystander . . . to being the bully’s next victim.

Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance edited by Rhoda Belleza

       It does not necessarily take a fist to create a punch in the gut. Fourteen short stories by well-known young adult authors delve into the experience of being bullied—socially, emotionally, physically, psychologically, and sexually. The school hallways, walking home, and house walls are no longer boundaries for intimidation and harassment. With social media and smartphones, bullying has lost all limits, and the lines among truth, lies, and real accountability have become blurred.
     Cornered includes stories by Jennifer Brown (Hate List), Elizabeth Miles (Fury), and Josh Berk (The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin).

Books can help us understand ourselves and others.

Happy reading,
Connie

Have you registered yet for the Sweet Tweets Poetry workshops?

       I hope you have marked your calendar for March 27th and April 3rd from 3:00-4:00.  We’ll have some fun with words, creating poems from book spines and composing six-word memoirs before we try our hand at some poetry tweets!

Here are a couple of poetry tweets that I like:

 Every time we say goodbye a piece of me is torn aside.  It pulls and pulls, stretched out wide, until again we two collide.

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Strength isn’t about the size of your muscles. It’s more to do with how you cope with all life’s little tussles.

 

See you there!  Bring a friend!
Connie

Sweet Tweets @ the Library!

April is National Poetry Month and we are ready to celebrate! 

I will offer two poetry workshops after school on March 27th and April 3rd, from 3:00-4:00.   Our goal is to write Poetry Tweets---creating a short poem using 140 characters of less (think Twitter!).

We will do some fun word play to warm us up, like creating Book Spine Poetry.  Here are two examples of that.

 

We’ll also try Six-Word  Memoirs, describing something about ourselves in 6 words or less.  Here’s one I just wrote about myself.

 Grand kids.  More fun than kids.

We then will be ready to tackle writing our Sweet Tweets! There will be plenty of time to work on your poetry tweet during the second workshop. We will share at the library on April 10th in the evening from 6:30-7:30.

So, grab some friends and register at the library (or call us to register) for some creative fun!

See you there,
Connie