In ‘The Bully Book,’ Eric Kahn Gale has perfectly captured the angst of a kid who just wants to be accepted but doesn’t quite know how to go about making that happen. Main character Eric Haskins has started his sixth grade year as “The Grunt” – a title he did not ask for and does not fully understand. What he does know, however, is that there are other students, known as Bully Bookers, who have a “Bully Book” teaching them how to label him as someone at the bottom of the barrel while they rise to the occasion, claiming all the popularity and instilling fear in people like Eric who just want to be left alone. He tells his story through journal entries that explain how the pages of the book apply to him and what he is doing about them.

Since isolating the Grunt from the rest of the general school population is one of the missions of the Bully Bookers, they do just that by keeping Eric away from his good friend, Melody. Even his old friend Donovan is now hanging out with the mean kids, mostly in what seems his attempt to maintain a semblance of popularity after having lost some weight and being accepted by people he thought he’d never be hanging out with like Jason and Adrian, true Bully Bookers who know how to keep people down while building themselves up.

Through a series of investigations that Eric embarks on alone, as well as with the help of others who have been down the “Grunt” path before, readers learn quite a bit about Eric’s plan of action. This includes how he plans to get himself out of the mess, along with some haunting realizations about where the Bully Book started, how it was put into action, and who it has affected over the years besides just himself and the few people he’s met along the way.

A quick and extremely engaging read, the story is on point regarding how the bullying epidemic is still prevalent today, after having been around for more years than most would care to admit. Eric Kahn Gale has only cracked the surface of what kids can do to realize their worth; however, a start is a start, and if more books could be written and spread around elementary and middle schools (and even high schools and beyond!) like this one, maybe bullying would begin to diminish, even if only to a degree. He has started readers on the right path, and students, educators, and parents alike would be wise to read this novel and share its morals with all who will listen.

You can find ‘The Bully Book’ by Eric Kahn Gale here.