Review: This story focuses on bullying but falls short of helping the intended audience resolve the problem
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 13, 2013
I gave this story 3-stars as the author is focused on brining awareness to the bullying that many young people, especially obvious gay people face at schools and from their peers.I recommend this story to those exploring the problem.  What I found lacking is a serious discussion on realistic and plausible courses of action that a young person may take to resolve the problem.  The resolution of this story may be okay for fiction, but it misses an important opportunity to help young people confront bullying in constructive ways.  In fact, the story depicts many of the people that should care about the problem as not wanting to be bothered.  Is this the message we really want to give to young people that are facing bullying?  That the only person who will care is someone that was bullied as a youngster?The message I would like to see the intended audience coming away with that there is hope and it doesn’t take a small miracle to get resolution.  Most family members, teachers, administrators and neighbors do care.  The biggest hurdle is getting the person being bullied to ask for help.  In addition, when those who are around young people see avoidance behavior, changes in routine, undue injuries and depression, they need to encourage young people to open up and share what is going on in her/his world.This story does an okay job of being a story but does not do anything to help the intended audience to reach out for help and to help him/her constructively stop the bullying through constructive intervention.  What was alluded to in the story is often the bully him or herself are often being abused as home or by peers.