Tolog Review: Dear Bully

Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories
by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones 
reviewed by Sofia Sierra

In the novel, Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, the struggles of high school and teenage living are exposed by the authors we all seem to know and love. Throughout the novel we see a collection of real live stories which are told by authors ranging from R.L Stine to Jessica Brody.

Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories shows the struggles of growing up. We hear about Carrie Jones, an American author. Jones writes about the struggles she had with learning to speak correctly and what other struggles came along with the task. She has now appeared multiple times on the New York Times Best Seller List. We also hear about the R.L Stine, an author who has sold over 400 million copies of his books, and his story. Stine used his witty and funny personality to help those who were Attacked by his other classmates. We also hear about how bullying and harsh words inspired Jessica Brody, the author of Love Undercover, to write lyrics and music.

With a novel like Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories comes the lessons we learn. The 2011 novel still seems to hold a place in society, even after almost ten years. According to the novel, “A child commits suicide as a direct result of being bullied once every half hour…” (Hopkins 5). Today, 16% of students seriously consider suicide according to the Suicide Awareness Voices for Education while about 64.5% of students have reported an incident of bullying. But why mention these issues?

I recommend the novel Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories to anyone who wants to find out more about the current issues that people our age have today. Just because we ourselves have not experienced something does not mean that is not existent in our world. Bullying is still an issue that lots of teenagers and children struggle with. The novel may cover a topic that not all people are comfortable with, but, it shows us what people go through and how we can help them. Personally the novel pulled at emotions that I have felt and just felt very real, because it is.

Bullying will most likely never become a topic that people comfortably talk about, but, books like Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories shed a light on the issue and starts to get people talking. Talking leads to a solution; and a solution is exactly what we need in the world currently.