Weird!: A Story About Dealing with Bullying in Schools (The Weird! Series)
Luisa tells her story: I have a problem. There’s a girl in my class who thinks that everything I do is WEIRD! Whenever Luisa speaks in class, tells a joke, or wears her polka-dot boots, Sam is always around muttering weird. Luisa keeps changing her behavior to appease Sam, but that doesn’t seem to be possible. After talking it over with her mom, Luisa puts on her boots, tells her jokes, and raises her hand. She realizes, The more I act like I don’t care what she says, the more I really don’t care. This book, with its scrawling ink art highlighted with pops of color, does some things very well, especially dealing with the feelings of someone who is not so much bullied in the classical sense, but is bewildered and losing confidence because she thinks she needs to please others. (The book does call this bullying.) The substantive back matter, including tips for coping with bullying, help further push this blend of fiction and information into the nonfiction camp. Grades 1-3. --Ilene Cooper