Confessions of a Former Bully

Author Trudy Ludwig Illustrated by Beth Adams

For Ages
8 to – 12

After Katie gets caught teasing a schoolmate, she's told to meet with Mrs. Petrowski, the school counselor, so she can make right her wrong and learn to be a better friend. Bothered at first, it doesn't take long before Katie realizes that bullying has hurt not only the people around her, but her, too. Told from the unusual point of view of the bullier rather than the bullied, Confessions of a Former Bully provides kids with real life tools they can use to identify and stop relational aggression.

An Excerpt fromConfessions of a Former Bully

MY VERY IMPORTANT BOOK
ABOUT BULLYING
by Katie

P-S-S-S-T!

I'm going to tell you what you need to know about bullying. I've even included stuff that kids who bully DON'T want you to find out. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about since I used to be one.

I stopped bullying with the help of our school counselor, Mrs. Petrowski. She must have spent a gazillion hours studying bullying because she knows so much about it. I never thought what I did to my friend Monica—giving her the silent treatment, telling her who she could be friends with, and not including her in games at recess—was bullying.

I was suprised to find out that it actually was.

One of the first things I learned was that bullying hurts everyone, even the kids who are bullying! That got me thinking: What's the point of doing something that ends up hurting ME in the end?

Under the Cover