Author: Carrie Goldman
Publisher: HarperOne, 2012 (Hardcover)
Length: 348 pages
Genre: Adult; Nonfiction, Parenting
Started: August 30, 2013
Finished: September 1, 2013
Summary:
From the inside cover:
Carrie Goldman became an unexpected voice for the antibullying movement after her blog post about her daughter Katie's bullying experience went viral and an online community of support generated international attention. In Bullied, Goldman brings together the expertise of leading authorities with the candid accounts of families dealing firsthand with peer victimization to present proven strategies and concrete tools for teaching children how to speak up and carry themselves with confidence; call each other out on cruelty; resolve conflict; cope with teasing, taunting, physical abuse, and cyberbulling; and be smart consumers of technology and media. As a mother, she calls on us all-families, schools, communities, retailers, celebrities, and media-to fiercely examine our own stereotypes and embrace our joint responsibility for creating a culture of acceptance and respect.
For parents, educators, and anyone still wrestling with past experiences of victimization and fear, Bullied is an eye-opening, prescriptive, and ultimately uplifting guide to raising diverse, empathetic, tolerant kids in a caring and safe world.
Review:
I've been meaning to read this since it came out last year but it unintentionally got pushed to the back of my reading list, but thankfully I got around to it, and just before school starts to boot. I've been following this author's blog since before she even wrote the book, she's an awesome adoption advocate and really knows her stuff about bullying, the media, and sexualization of little girls.
Bullied is an amazing comprehensive resource about bullying that talks about many aspects: the possible sources of bullying and how children get in that mindset to ostracize the "other" (media stereotypes of masculine and feminine, parents treating others disrespectfully etc.), the profiles of children that are typical targets of bullying, exactly what constitutes bullying and the different types; and ways to combat the bullying that help the victim, the bully, and the community. The author includes a lot of first-hand accounts from stories sent to her after sharing her daughter's experience with bullying, interviews from prominent experts in the field, as well as celebrities and activists.
Bullied is an excellent book that all parents, teachers, and anyone that interacts with kids on a consistent basis needs to read. Not only does the author touch on the huge issue of the media and stereotypes that kids are exposed to on a daily basis (that isn't addressed as often as it should in my opinion), it offers practical solutions that keep both the victim and the bully in mind (because typically the bullies are victims in their own right too). Also, the author has lists of other resources in the back of the book: books grouped by age level, movies, etc. She actually lists several books I've read and recommended on bullying, as well as some pretty good documentary films too, so I can tell she's done her research.
Recommendation:
Anyone who deals with kids on a daily basis needs to read this, it's just an amazing resource that dispels the myths about bullying that people have been perpetrating forever and offers practical solutions.
Thoughts on the cover:
Kinda plain but most of the cover is taken up by the title anyway.
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