Title: Are You a Bullyrag?
Subtitle: Naughty or Nice
Author: Katheline Tate
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-7283-4379-2
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 60
Reviewed by: Barbara Miller
Pacific Book Review
Bullying has become a very popular topic in books, school policies, and even legislative laws nowadays, yet has been a problem for generations of children; many of whom have matured into adults. The tendencies which lead to being bullied are many, yet most all fall within a common scope. Differences in appearances, personalities or mental acuity, just to name a few. Author Katheline Tate has created a book which is actually a tool for parents to teach youngsters how to cope with a bully and maintain God’s given individualism and to bolden one’s self-esteem to avoid being victimized. Are You a Bullyrag? takes readers through a series of situations to systematically defuse the power of a bully, rendering the situation benign so as not to receive any harm by the recipient of such immoral actions. It “toughens up” the mental fortitude of children in both a useable skill as well as a subliminal attitude of not succumbing to the bully. It is a very useful sequence of “work-book” types of situations; such as being
teased by one’s hair color, or large feet, or freckles, resulting in preparing in advance inner strength to ward off any such “attack.” After a few pages of awareness, Tate leave a blank page or two for the readers to write their thoughts on the subject. In this fashion, the book becomes an inter-active read, allowing for the “sinking in” of the lessons learned.
One of the best aspects of the book is the use of photographs and illustrations, interleaved betwixt the statements within the galley text. Some of the photos are precious in their depiction of maternal love and childish happiness. It begins with a rather comical sequence of someone being teased for having big ears and a large nose – but the picture is that of an elephant. Most all pictures will have readers pause and “take in” the message of these artfully placed pictures through the book.
Are You a Bullyrag? is a wonderful addition to all youngsters’ libraries, and will be enjoyed over-and-over many times at story-time. The kids will not even be aware of their being prepped for handling the school-yard bully or some other foe lurking in the crowd, ready to hurt their feelings over some innocuous detail of which God made them the way they are. This book teaches us all, God made us in His image, and to respect the wonderful variations we display.
