What If Bunny's Not a Bully?

Written by Lana Button

Illustrated by Christine Battuz

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0055-4

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2020

Kitty from Lana Button and Christine Battuz's My Teacher's Not Here! (2018) is still learning to navigate school and to be a part of a peer group. But she's a clever kitty and when she's told about Bunny being a bully, Kitty is determined to understand.

From What If Bunny's Not a Bully? by Lana Button, illus. by Christine Battuz

Elephant tells all the others that Bunny is a bully because she is mean and will make them sad if she gets mad. But Kitty wants to understand so much about Bunny being a bully.

...did she start out friendly,
a kid like you and me,
but ran into a bullybug
whose stringer makes you mean?

She has questions about how Bunny became a bully, whether she will always be a bully, and even whether it's contagious.

From What If Bunny's Not a Bully? by Lana Button, illus. by Christine Battuz

But when Kitty worries that she could become a bully and too be left out, Elephant reassures her that they would never leave her out because then they would be the mean ones. That's when Kitty recognizes that maybe Bunny is not the bully she's assumed to be and they need to change something to make things better.

Lana Button has a keen sense of how young children think and feel. Like many young children, Kitty will tend to follow when she feels that others know a situation better, like the elephant seems to know from experience with Bunny. But Kitty also has an empathetic heart that makes her think about the big picture and discover when that picture may be skewed. From her innocent worries about a contagion to visualizing an elderly Bunny still being shunned by Kitty's peers during a game of croquet, Kitty sees beyond what they are being told and the hurt some of them feel.

From What If Bunny's Not a Bully? by Lana Button, illus. by Christine Battuz

Christine Battuz's illustrations emphasize that innocence of perspective in her use of colour and shape, placing her very softly rounded animals in familiar school yard scenes. Her stylized landscape of patterned balls on trunks for trees, and red flowers dotting the yard, with birds throughout is as the very young often depict their surroundings. Yet there's so much to see in the expressions of Christine Battuz's characters, from discomfort and bossiness, to confusion and surprise, that What If Bunny's Not a Bully? could be an anchor book for lessons about feelings.

For young children, lessons in getting along with others and creating inclusive communities can be challenging. Their needs are often so immediate and egocentric. But what Lana Button and Christine Battuz have done is brought these lessons to their bubble of experience and helped guide them to seeing outside of themselves to understand what others may be experiencing. A valuable lesson for all of us.

•••••••••••

Today 

Monday April 27, 2020

at 2 p.m. EST

listen 

to a reading

by author Lana Button

of

What If Bunny's Not a Bully?

and

 to a conversation about pro-social behaviour in primary grades.

as part of the #CanadaPerforms live presentations.

Just go to Lana Button's Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/lana.button.5

••••••••••• 

Jackpot: A Swindle Mystery

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Press

978-0-545-56146-4

200 pp.

Ages 8-13

January 2014

Jackpot is Book 6 in Gordon Korman's Swindle series which began with Swindle (2009), Zoobreak (2010), Framed (2011), Showoff (2012) and Hideout (2013), all sporting covers with the quintessential Luthor.  And if you don't know who Luthor is, I recommend you read Books 1 through 5 first.

Darren Vader is a career bully (for a kid in middle grade), showing up in each of the previous Swindle books and causing untold grief to Griffin Bing and his friends Ben, Pitch, Logan, Melissa and Savannah. But things take a turn when Darren's mother, a lawyer, begins helping Griffin's father apply for a patent for his invention, the SweetPick.  When Darren gets up to more mischief, Griffin takes the blame for it, all to prevent Mrs. Vader from getting off track and Griffin's dad from becoming more anxious.

Feeling the need for getting even, Griffin enlists the help of his friends to prank the money-hungry bully with a news story about a missing lottery ticket (true) being lost in the garbage of their town (not true).  In an unforeseen twist, garbage hunters flock to Cedarville in search of that lottery ticket and wreak havoc, and Griffin and friends are given community service for their mischief and Darren warps himself into the role of the victim.

Griffin's moniker goes from "The Man With The Plan" to bully, even raising the ire of new student Victor Phoenix who has an answer for everything and becomes the new Man With The Plan.  No matter how Griffin tries to resurrect his friendships and reputation, he ends up looking more and more like a bully, just as Doberman Luthor does when around Victor's cat Penelope who is temporarily housed at Luthor's house.  Not surprising that Griffin and Luthor find themselves teaming up to try and make things right, even if it does include Darren Vader and that lottery ticket again.

Gordon Korman has long been successful at getting children reading, from his adventure (Dive, Everest, and Island), thriller (On the Run and Kidnapped) and humour (Macdonald Hall) series. In the Swindle series, the emphasis is on the farcical nature of friendships and perspective and Jackpot is no exception.  From the kids' views on themselves and others,

"No offense, Griffin, but stuff a sock in it," muttered Logan.  "I ought to have my head examined for following you and your cockamamie plans.  It's only a short step from community service to community theatre.  My talent belongs to the world, not some podunk playhouse." (pg. 32)

to  the fantastic imagery

The interior made the chaos of the porch seem neat.  Griffin had never been to the rain forest, but he'd always imagined it looking like this.  Long macramé planters and hangings dangled so low from the ceiling, and random stuff was piled so high on tabletops, that barely any light penetrated from the windows. (pg. 108)

the text oozes with atmosphere of levity and colour.  Coupled with the brisk dialogue and plotting, Jackpot is a fun and accessible read for young people, another example of Gordon Korman's knack for enticing new readers.

 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

I see Unleashed, Book 7, is set for release in January, 2015 so, if you haven't already, it's best to get caught up on your Swindle reading now!

Ink Me: Seven The Series

Written by Richard Scrimger

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-0016-8

224 pp.

Ages 10+

Release date October 10, 2012

Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy

Anticipation for Orca's upcoming Seven The Series has been growing since first announced earlier in the year and its enticing book trailer released in February.  If Ink Me, just one of the seven books set for simultaneous release on October 10, 2012, is any indicator, all young readers will be hooked instantly.

Bunny (a.k.a. Bernard) is just one of seven grandsons who, upon the death of their grandfather, receive a letter and instructions about a task to perform.  At 15, Bunny is the youngest of the grandsons but he may be the most challenged, living with a mental disability.  Regardless, Bunny is a very astute young man, understanding far more than many, even if Bunny believes that,

"they all reddy no Im a dummy." (pg. 3)

And Ink Me is all about how people, places, objects, situations - everything - are perceived and how these perceptions, right or wrong or misunderstood, affect everything else.

Bunny's task is to go to a particular tattoo parlour where they have been instructed to give him a specific tattoo.  The tattoo of the number 15 with a candle doesn't strike Bunny as anything special or too unusual; after all, he turned 15 on his most recent birthday.  But, the reader soon realizes, even if Bunny does not, that the tattoo that he sports indicates that he is part of the 15 Street gang and that he has made one kill.

When Bunny defends a skinny gang member, Jaden, from a beating by a member of a rival gang, the Angels, he is introduced to other members of 15 at the gym where they hang out.  Being white, Bunny is an oddity within the gang but his tattoo and surprising knowledge, albeit naively, of gang members with whom 15 is making a deal, gives him some credibility.  For the first time, Bunny is enjoying the camaraderie of friends, particularly Jaden.  Moreover, Morgan, a former pro fighter who now runs the gym, recognizes that Bunny could be a great fighter, with his fast reflexes and the moves his grandfather had taught him, and Morgan starts training him.

Although enjoying the benefits of his new friendships, Bunny also must withstand the negatives associated with being a part of 15, though he does not always recognize these drawbacks as such.  Even after being hauled away with the gang by the police and interrogated about "the deal" and later chased and shot at by a rival gang, Bunny continues to see everything as a new experience and himself under the care of his friends.  The line between the good guys and the bad guys continues to get blurred for Bunny as the deal between 15 and two other gangs is brokered.

Richard Scrimger, one of my favourite Canadian authors, is brilliant at telling a story without any lessons creeping in to weigh down the plot; that is, until the last few pages of the book are turned.  Readers will be too engrossed in the upshot of Bunny's honesty and incomprehension to realize that Ink Me exposes the vulnerability of perceptions to misinterpretation.  Whether it be the tattoo that marks Bunny as a gang member, or Jaden acting one way but in reality being someone else, or how guns are bad except when they're useful, these matters are all vulnerable to misperception.  Even Bunny's mom, a philosophy professor, has a hard time believing what Bunny tells her, instead reading situations as she chooses or as she is accustomed.  Though writing as Bunny must have been an arduous task for Richard Scrimger, as the text is so laden with spelling and grammatical mistakes, the author provides a real example of the dangers of "misreading."  I had to remind myself constantly that "no" in Bunny's text is "know" for me, and that I had to read carefully in order that I not let my prejudices alter the text's meaning.  Ink Me is a brilliant story, less about gangs and tattoos than about our relationships with others and the roles misunderstanding and perspective play in securing or destroying the integrity of those connections.