Important Books to Explore Bullying and Ally Behavior

While bullying is still a problem in schools, the intersection of bias and bullying can be particularly harmful. Identity-based bullying is when a person is targeted based on an essential part of their identity (e.g., race, immigration status, sexual orientation, religion, or gender identity). It is common in schools and not only impacts the targeted person but everyone else around them that shares their identity. Identity-based bullying can leave all students feeling unsafe and fearful that their group could be the next target.

Use these picture and chapter books to help elementary and middle school students reflect on bullying and explore strategies for ally behavior. All the books include two discussion guides, one for educators and one for parents and families.

Big (Ages 4-8) This book traces a child’s journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both hurt and heal. With spare text and exquisite illustrations, this emotional exploration of being big in a world that prizes small is a tender portrayal of how you can stand out and feel invisible at the same time.

Confessions of a Former Bully (Ages 8-12) 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 as well. This book provides children with real life tools they can use to understand, identify and do something about bullying.

Each Kindness (Ages 4-8) Chloe doesn’t really know why she turns away from the new girl, Maya, when Maya tries to befriend her. And every time Maya asks if she can play with Chloe and the other girls, the answer is always no. So Maya ends up playing alone. And one day she’s gone. When Chloe’s teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the opportunity that’s been lost. How much better could it have been if she’d just shown Maya a little kindness and opened her heart to friendship?

I Walk with Vanessa (Ages 4-8) This simple yet powerful wordless picture book tells the story of one girl who inspires a community to stand up to bullying. The book explores the feelings of helplessness and anger that arise in the wake of seeing a classmate treated badly and shows how a single act of kindness can lead to an entire community joining in to help.

Lunch Every Day (Ages 4-8) Every day Jimmy takes ‘Skinny Kid’s’ lunch at school. No way will he be caught dead standing in that FREE LUNCH line. Even when he’s called into the principal’s office, Jimmy just shrugs. “Yeah. Whatever.” Until a surprising act of empathy and allyship stops him in his tracks. For a split second a door cracks open into Jimmy’s heart. Who knows? Maybe he’ll just kick that door right open.

Posted (Ages 8-12) In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever. When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

Starfish (Ages 10-13) Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the "Fat Girl Rules"—like "no making waves," "avoid eating in public," and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles." And she's found her safe space—her swimming pool—where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. It's also where she can get away from her pushy mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie's weight will motivate her to diet. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to starfish in real life--by unapologetically being her own fabulous self.

The Boy at the Back of the Class (Ages 8-12) There used to be an empty chair at the back of Mrs. Khan's classroom, but on the third Tuesday of the school year a new kid fills it: nine-year-old Ahmet, who is a refugee from Syria. The whole class is curious about this new boy—he doesn't seem to smile, and he doesn't talk much. But after learning that Ahmet fled a war and was separated from his family along the way, a determined group of his classmates bands together to concoct the Greatest Idea in the World—a magnificent plan to reunite Ahmet with his loved ones.

The Best Man (Ages 9-12) Archer Magill has spent a lively five years of grade school in search of grown-up role models. Three of the best are his grandpa, the great architect; his dad, the great vintage car customizer; and his uncle Paul, who is just plain great. These are the three he wants to be like. Along the way he finds a fourth—Mr. McLeod, a military-based student teacher who both disrupts Archer’s class and enriches it. In response to anti-LGBTQ+ bullying, Mr. McLeod gives the students a lecture in which he publicly outs himself, a particularly poignant moment. 

The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade (Ages 3-6) Sally notices everything—from the twenty-seven keys on the janitor’s ring to the bullying happening on the playground. One day, Sally has had enough and decides to make herself heard. And when she takes a chance and stands up to the bullying, she finds that one small girl can make a big difference.