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.
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
reviewed by Grace Sadahiro
In the New York Times Bestseller first person novel Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, the author himself expressed his thoughts from when he was a child to a humorous, compassionate, luminous, and complicated memoir of his life during the Great Depression. Frank, growing up in Ireland, never boasted about his childhood. At a very young age, he acknowledges that his family was poor and realizes that the impact for this was all because of the father, Malachy Sr., having alcoholic problems. Frank describes the unfortunate events of his life as the novel develops.
When the book began, Frank revealed just how dreadful his childhood was, “When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all… Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood” (McCourt 11). Frank only had his mother, his father and brother both named Malachy McCourt, twin brothers Oliver and Eugene, and a deceased sister Margaret. Angela McCourt, although she had an exceedingly irresponsible husband, manifested that her first priorities were her children because she maintained great expectations for them and raised them to be well-behaved, hardworking men. Malachy McCourt Sr., on the other hand, was evidently not the most helpful or supportive father. The illness that Frank’s father had, which decreased the welfare of the family, was his uncontrolling and endangering drinking. His several alcoholic consumptions after his children’s deaths were supposed to help him numb the pain. Frank’s other siblings charmed the hearts of Angela McCourt and worked hard to try to benefit the family.
Two major themes in Angela’s Ashes were class limitations and hunger. Although Frank McCourt was intelligent, he never had the opportunities to further his education because him and his family were paupers. Frank knew what he would have experienced in school because, “People everywhere brag and whimper about the oes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire… the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years” (McCourt 11). No matter how hard Angela McCourt tried, Malachy (Sr.) was always keeping his family on the low-class status because of the decline of prosperity. The McCourt family was so poor that because of Malachy McCourt Sr., they were always on the low-class status. Frank wanted to learn but did not have the money to pay for schooling. Frank’s figurative hunger was to get valuable teachings. Since Mr. McCourt was always alcoholic and health problems, he took more things away from his family than just hunger. Every McCourt desired to work hard except for Malachy Sr., who never learned how to control himself.
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
reviewed by Lilian Welwood
Angela’s Ashes, an Autobiographical bildungsroman, is an Irish story that tugs at the heart. Frank Mccourt is the son of Angela and Malachy Mccourt along with the brother of Malachy Jr, two twins Oliver and Gene, and a new baby Girl named Margaret. Frank Mccourt's story starts with the birth of the mother Angela’s birth into a catholic family, and goes on and explains her family forced marriage to the Irish man Malachy Mccourt. The story is written from the innocent young point of view of Frank Mccourt. Frank takes us through his terribly impoverished childhood, having a father that drinks away his daily wages leaving the his mother and siblings hungry, and the sudden deaths of 3 of his siblings causing his mother Angela to go into depression, Frank feels the need to take care of his family. As a young child Frank wants to “be like all the big people in the church, standing and kneeling and praying and understanding everything” (Mccourt.108) under the unrealistic impression that all adults understand everything. Throughout his childhood Frank has a real respect for adults, especially his father. Despite his drinking and little help to the family Frank’s Father Malachy Mccourt really grabs the respect and love from Frank as their relationship grows stronger through the stories and lessons he teaches his son.
The author, Frank Mccourt’s innocent and curious point of view gives the sad childhood story a refreshing and comic relief touch, that really makes reading it very enjoyable. As Frank grows up the audience really can see through the new insights and his growing knowledge that he gets wiser as time passes. Having to deal with going to school and getting jeered at for wearing old shoes nailed with squares of tire to having to walk around town on christmas eve being laughed at and called, “Frankie McCourt an’ his pig’s snout”(98) for having to carry a pig's head home for a christmas dinner, the themes in difference in societal class and perseverance are shown in a wonderful ways through the eyes of McCourt's child and young adult self. Overall I enjoyed Frank McCourt's story telling.
A Girl's Life Online
by Katherine Tarbox
reviewed by Tiffany Xia
In A Girl’s Life Online, a nonfiction autobiographical novel, the author Katherine Tarbox recounts a horrible accident that happened to her teenage-self that completely changed her life. Just like any other girls in their early ages living in the affluent New Canaan, Connecticut, Katie Tarbox, being the top student in her school and a nationally ranked swimmer, struggles with popularity and being perfect in others’ eyes. Then one day, young Katie, feeling like no one understands her, discovers the existence of universal online chat rooms on her sister, Abby’s computer and things start to get out of hand. She first begins talking to random strangers on the internet, nothing really catched Katie’s attention until she meets a twenty-three years old man, supposedly named “Mark” in a chat room. After just a few conversations with Mark, Katie says, “When we were together, Mark wasn’t twenty-something. I wasn’t a thirteen-year-old. We were equals who didn’t really have ages” (Tarbox 50), believing that Mark was someone that truly understands her and cares for her.
Katie and Mark eventually start talking on the phone and start to exchange personal informations. Katie then starts to develop a seemingly romantic relationship with him and expresses “The confidence I got from this experience, combined with thinking about Mark nonstop for eight days, helped me realize that I loved him” (73). Towards the end of Katie’s summer vacation, Katie, as an elite swimmer, goes to a swim meet in Texas and finally agrees to meet up with Mark there, the man that she loves. Being really nervous, Katie calms herself down by saying, “I was now about to meet the man I loved. He knew so much about me, but also very little” (Tarbox 91). As they finally meet, Mark does not turn out to be what Katie has thought about him this whole time. Katie’s decision of meeting Mark turns out to be something that will eventually turn her life upside down.
In the novel, Tarbox writes in first person, giving the readers insight to her feelings; which I find it to really helpful because as a teenager, she did make very wrong decisions that some people may not understand or relate. The book was extremely captivating and interesting to read for me because her curiosity at a young age is very relatable to teenagers nowadays. Her descriptive point of view also made me feel really involved in the story trying to guess what is going to happen next. I would recommend this book to young teenagers or parents because it really helps the readers build up their cautiousness about what the internet can do since it is so prevalent and popular in current life. Overall, the story was really compelling and I enjoyed it a lot.
Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Story
edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
reviewed by Meghan Sullivan
Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Story, edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones, tells the incredible and true stories of over 70 authors and their experience with bullying. The variety of short stories talk about all the different sides of bullying; the victim, the bystander and the bully himself. The goal of the book is to “create safe communities, homes, and schools, where everyone is valued for who they are, not in spite of their differences but because of them” (Hall and Jones 6). A truly inspirational book, where all the different people who bullying affects come forward to tell their story. While each story is unique, they all focus on the same theme; the dire need to stop the perpetual hate that exists in our society.
This book does a fantastic job of explaining how prevalent and widespread bullying is, and how many different forms bullying can take. While it does deal with traditional bullying, such as teasing, name calling, and physical violence, it also talks about other kinds of harassment, such as emotional and mental manipulation, abusive relationships, and molestation. In addition, this book does an amazing job showing all sides of the story, including the bully, which truly sets this book apart. The book explains that in some cases the bully never intends to be mean and is only trying to fit in; or how other times they are simply not aware of the consequences of their actions. Dear Bully also explains the thought process and reasoning behind the bystanders; they never speak up because they are afraid of becoming the target.
In these inspiring stories, the many authors tell of the harassment they receive, gave, or watch from the sidelines. They look back on the different events and talk about what they should say or do but did not. They address their bullies and thank them because they “learned what really [matters]” and how “to be [their] own person” (Hall and Jones 32) because of the struggles they have been through. They thank the bullies for allowing them to learn who they really are, and showing them their true friends.There are also personal apologies; stories brimming with regret for words the authors say or do not say, for walking away when another human needs help or for pushing someone when they are down. Authors write of how they stand on the sidelines and watch, and still regret it years later. People tell of the cruel words they say or jokes they play during that point in their lives. Many different people who are or have been bullied tell how it does not only affect one person but changes the life of the victim, the bystander, and the bully.
Because so many different authors contribute to the book, there are so many different writing styles and techniques. Some tell their story through a comic strip, while others write a poem. However, this adds to the quality of the book. Everyone prefers different styles of writing, and because there are so many different authors, the reader is bound to enjoy at least one of the writing techniques.This format for the book allows the reader to enjoy styles they are familiar with and like as well as give the reader the opportunity to experience new writing styles they would not read on their own. The length of the stories and variety of styles allows the book to relate to many different types of readers who enjoy different types of writing.
