Take Part In Bullying Prevention Month with Books

October is Bullying Prevention Month, which means it is important to revisit the damage bullying can cause, how we can stop it, and how we can help the people on all sides of the problem. One way to help ourselves understand, and help young adults deal with bullying related issues, is to read about it. Here are some young adult novels that deal with bullying and the aftermath of what pain it can cause on all sides.

If you or someone you know needs help now, or more solace than a great read can offer then please check out the official website StopBulling.gov, StompOutBullying.org, or the Nation Education Association’s Bully Free page for information, resources, and assistance.

The Bully by Paul Langan

A new life. An new school. A new bully. That’s what Darrell Mercer faces when he and his mother move from Philadelphia to California. After spending months living in fear, Darrell is faced with a big decision. He can either keep running from this bully–or find some way to fight back.

Brutal by Michael Harmon

After being left by her mother to live with a father she hardly knows in the middle of suburbia, Poe is happy to have found a few new friends at her new school, but when her new friends become the target of dangerous pranks by the popular jocks, Poe is determined to take down the group’s egomaniacal leader and put an end to his mean games.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jane Asher

When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the

mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah’s voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

By The Time You Read This I’ll Be Dead by Julie Annie Peters. High school student Daelyn Rice, who has been bullied throughout her school career and has more than once attempted suicide, again makes plans to kill herself, despite the persistent attempts of an unusual boy named Santana to draw her out.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Regina Afton, a high school senior in the popular–and feared–crowd, suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace through Michael Hayden, one of her former victims.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

After her boyfriend goes on a shooting rampage at school, Valerie is implicated because of her involvement in writing the list of names and so now must come to terms with what has happened, her feelings for the boy she once loved, and the part she played that resulted in such tragic events.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
A fifteen-year-old “geek” who keeps a list of the high school jocks and others who torment him, and pours his energy into creating a great graphic novel, encounters Kyra, Goth Girl, who

helps change his outlook on almost everything, including himself.

As usual, I cannot list all the great books in the post, or I would bored you all. But, I cannot help myself from adding a little bonus list at the end and asking you to comment with any books you would like to recommend. Here are my bonus books; The Misfits by James Howe, The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence, Before, After, and Somebody In Between by Jeannine Garsee, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, Indigo’s Star by Hilary McKay, Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden,Diary Of A Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander, Freak by Marcella Fleischman Pixley, Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson,Darius & Twig by Walter Dean Myers,Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance edited by Rhoda Belleza, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield, and Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur.