Giveaway! THE BULLY BOOK by Eric Kahn Gale

 Today Jodie and I have up for grabs, THE BULLY BOOK by Eric Kahn Gale. There is not one, but three copies to give away. All copies have been donated by the super fabulous HarperCollins.

The rules governing middle school are often a mystery, but for Eric Haskins, they’re a mystery he needs to solve, and fast. He’s a normal, average kid, until sixth grade starts. For some inexplicable reason, the class bully and his pack make Eric the Grunt. Even his best friend since first grade turns on him. Eric can’t figure out why he’s the Grunt until he hears about the Bully Book, a cryptic guide that teaches you how to “make trouble without getting in trouble, rule the school and be the man” and how to select the Grunt-the kid who will become the lowest of the low.

Eric Haskins may be this year’s Grunt for now, but he’s determined not to stay at the bottom of the social ladder forever. Hilarious and compelling, The Bully Book is a must-read for every tween, tween parent, librarian and educator!

RULES:

13+

Winner must respond within 48 hours

Open to Everybody



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Millie talks about bullying (with a Giveaway!)

Today I'm going to spotlight Karen Pokras Toz an author who has a fabulous middle grade novel getting ready to release called MILLICENT MARIE IS NOT MY NAME. Karen has given us a story from Millicent's point of view. I hope you enjoy!

About Millicent Marie Is Not My Name:

Twelve-year-old Millicent Marie does not like her name. After all, she was named for a woman who died more than fifty years ago and was not the most loveable member of the Harris family. Her friends call her Millie, but when she writes in her diary she refers to herself as Amanda – the name she always wished she had.

When Millie’s younger brother finds her diary on her computer, he decides to publish it as a blog for the entire world to see, including the boy Millie has a crush on. In the midst of all the mayhem, Millie/Amanda discovers she is suddenly Springside Elementary’s most sought after sixth-grade mystery gossip and advice columnist.

But not all is fun and games, as Millie quickly learns, once she realizes feelings are at stake. Nobody, least of all Millie, expects things to turn out as they do in this tale of friendship and respect.

Hi! My name is Millicent Marie, and I’m twelve years old. I’m here to help kick off National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and I’m really excited to be here. You see, I know all about bullying.  Not only have I been a victim of bullying, but also I’ve been a bully myself. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I learned a huge lesson. Let me back up a little...

It all started when I was just a little kid. There was this girl named Haylee, and she was always picking on me. Then she got her friends to pick on me, too. I guess they all thought it was funny or cool or something, but it really wasn’t. It hurt my feelings. In fact, at the start of sixth-grade, I decided not to join the soccer team just because Haylee would be on it too. It all sort of worked out though because I wound up joining the Drama Club instead, and Jordan is also in the Drama Club, and he is just so cute and . . . I’m getting off subject aren’t I – sorry. The point it, I was bullied, and I didn’t like it one bit. 

I know I should have told a grown-up about all the stuff Haylee and her friends did to me, but I didn’t. Instead, I wrote it in my diary that I keep on my computer. It sort of made it feel better even if it didn’t make the problem go away – that is, until . . . Well, my annoying younger brother thought it would be funny to publish my diary on the Internet as a BLOG! Do you believe that? Lucky for me, I never signed my diary entries with my real name, because let’s face it – Millicent Marie doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Instead, I chose the name Amanda. So the entire school had no idea I was the one who wrote all that stuff.

I was going to delete the blog, but all these people started emailing me asking for advice, and I thought that was pretty neat. No one had really ever cared about what I had to say before. Except – I went a little too far, and may have said a little too much. To me it was just harmless gossip – at least that’s what I convinced myself, but I hurt people’s feelings and that made me a bully too. I know now that what I did to other people was just as wrong as what Haylee and her friends had done to me. I feel really bad, and I hope everyone can forgive me.

There’s a lot more to the story, so I asked my creator, Karen Pokras Toz, to put it all down in a book for me. I hope you’ll give it a read. I learned a lot about gossiping, bullies, friendship, and respect. If you ask me, bullying prevention awareness should be a year-long event.

 

 

About Karen Pokras Toz:

 

Karen Pokras Toz is a writer, wife and mom. Karen grew up in Connecticut and currently lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. In June 2011, Karen published her first middle grade children’s novel for 7-12 year olds called Nate Rocks the World, which won First Place for Children’s Chapter Books and the Grand Prize Overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for a Global E-Book Award for Pre-Teen Literature. In 2012, Karen published the second in the Nate Rocks series, Nate Rocks the Boat, followed by middle grade novel, Millicent Marie Is Not My Name. Karen is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI).

 

Find The Author:

www.karentoz.com

 

Giveaway:

Karen has offered a paperback copy of MILLICENT MARIE IS NOT MY NAME for US/Canada residents and an ebook copy for International Residents. 

To enter please fill out the form -->  HERE!

DEAR BULLY Giveaway!

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself." --Harvey S. Firestone

You Changed Me. A Dear Bully Story

by Carrie Gordon Watson

When you got on the school bus that first day, you changed me.

When you sat three rows back, you changed me.

The first time you talked about me like I couldn’t hear you, you changed me.

When you made fun of my face, you changed me.

When you mocked my imperfect body, you changed me.

When you hinted that my ethnicity was hate-worthy, you changed me.

When you disparaged my family, you changed me.

When you saw the hurt in my eyes and said it anyway, you changed me.

When it wasn’t enough to make you stop, you changed me.

When you got bored with me and moved on to someone else, you changed me.

When I was too scared, too beaten down, too ashamed to speak up, you changed me.

Twenty years later,

when you shocked everyone by coming to the reunion, you changed me.

When you crossed the room,

when you came straight toward me,

when you knelt down by my chair

as my heart slammed inside me

in a fight-or-flight response so strong

I couldn't hear the music anymore,

you changed me.

When you asked my permission to speak to me,

when you said you wouldn’t blame me if I said NO,

when you admitted to being an asshole all those years ago,

when you said you were deeply sorry for the horrible things you’d said to me,

when you admitted you were wrong,

that you wished you could take it all back . . .

You changed me.

Rules:

Open to everyone 13+

Winner must respond within 48 hours

*All giveaways ran throughout this month will be shipped out at the end of the month*

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National Anti-Bullying Prevention Awareness Month - Bye, Bye Blogging

This is the first initial post of Anti-Bullying week. A friend gave me a link and said I should check it out. I did and didn't like what I saw. Since then I have been in contact with the blog owner and have been given permission for Jodie and I to republish their last post.

*This is copied directly from: Bye, Bye Blogging - Hippies, Beauties and Books OH MY!

Hello Readers,

Jon and I created a post a few weeks ago about us taking a break from blogging, or at least slowing down extensively.

For the past several weeks we have been bombarded with rude, vile and offensive comments being left on our blog in the comments section of our posts and in our emails. We've done our best to ignore and delete as much as possible, but we can (or rather I can) only handle so much negativity. This is a problem that has grown steadily worse and since I started blogging over a year ago. To be honest, I'm not sure what brought all of this to us. We are generous, nice people who genuinely care about others. We aren't sure if this is stemming from THE SITE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED, the fiasco with self-published author Carrol Bryant, or if people just decided to make us their next target.

Something occurred this week that was an eye-opener. A young girl we knew decided that she would rather die then go to school and be bullied. She was also tormented relentlessly on the Internet. A few days ago, her mother found her passed out unresponsive. She tried to hang herself using a belt around her neck. They had hopes she would pull through when she was rushed to the hospital, but she died yesterday morning.

She was only 11 years old.

When we do things on the Internet, some of us forget that there are ACTUAL PEOPLE on the other end of the conversation, blog, or whatever. When you type in a hateful message and click the send button, it goes to a real person with real feelings. It doesn't matter who you are, it's going to hurt.

I was bullied relentlessly in school. I refuse to be bullied when I go online. The blogging world has become something toxic that I don't want to associate with anymore. Between all of the butthurt authors complaining about bad reviews, the jealousy that flies around, that wacky site that can't figure out what real bullying is from a hole in the ground, people being stalked at their homes, rabid fans attacking reviewers, and all of the other crazy things I have witnessed (especially over the past few months), I feel like I'm living in a fucking soap opera. The drama is too high and the pay out is too low. It sometimes feels like almost everyone is competing with each other to see who is the biggest bitch and I'm all out of Drama Queen awards.

Jon and I have decided we are shutting down our blog for good. This will be our last post. At this time, we feel as if we can serve our community better without all of the drama and without waking up each day with people belittling the things that we do. The stress is not worth it anymore.

We'd like to thank everyone who has loved our blog and all of our friends and followers we have come to know this past year.

To everyone else, be kind and aware of what you say to others.

-Amanda & Jon

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHY? I don't have any other words. How can people be so cruel? She goes on to tell me more...

"I've had more than my fair share of nasty people. When I was a kid, I was bullied horribly. I would walk home from school and I would have kids throw rocks at my head. My grandmother bought me a faux fur coat when I was in first grade and the name Hairball stuck with me all through school. Kids are, excuse my french, fucking cruel, and the crap didn't calm down until I finally snapped and beat up a boy when I was in 6th grade. My mother always told me to just ignore them, but ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away.

When all of the stuff started to happen with my blog and then continued to get worse, it just brought me back to those times. Then this little girl killed herself and all I could think about was how close I had been to doing the same thing. At just eleven years old, that is much too young to loose your faith in humanity." -Amanda



 

More information here - 8.24.12

Rest In Peace Jasmyn Smith

 

I think Amanda is right in saying "be kind and aware of what you say to others."

National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month: On The Agenda

 

 

October is NATIONAL BULLYING PREVENTION AWARENESS MONTH.

 

I feel very strongly about this topic and it's my hope that during this time, Jodie from Uniquely Moi Books and I will have given some hope as well as Awareness on the topic.

 

Jodie and I have prepared an eventful month with real life stories, reviews and books covering the bullying topic as well as giveaways. Please make sure to visit both blogs every day this month as we have prepared the most special blog tour for each and every one of you.

 

A sample of things you will see on this blog is...

 

1. Book Giveaways

2. Guest posts

3. Reviews

 

Want to hear an opinion or story from:

 

Terra Elan McVoy? Amy Reed? Heather Brewer?

 

And so many others. We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you.

 

Remember. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.