Part instruction manual, part journal from the trenches, this debut novel incorporates both sides of the bullying issue into a single narrative. Eric Haskins is an average kid who has coasted through elementary school with a couple of friends and without attracting undue attention. But this year he is the "Grunt," the kid that everyone in sixth grade hates. Unsure of what he has done wrong, Eric becomes obsessed with getting his hands on the mythic Bully Book, which will supposedly tell him why he has been designated the Grunt. Eric keeps a journal, pages of which are intermixed with pages from the Bully Book. Reading the two together highlights how enigmatic the problem is for the child who is on the receiving end of a clearly defined set of unwritten rules. The fact that the Bully Book writes all the rules down adds a conspiratorial menace to the story. It is an over-the-top approach, yet it reinforces the insidious nature of bullying and its continued prevalence in the lives of middle-schoolers.

The clever premise has sixth-grade "Grunt" Eric Haskins investigating a mysterious how-to guide on bullying circulating the school. Alternating between Eric's journal entries and passages from The Bully Book, the narrative conveys both the perspective of the bullies' unfortunate target but also the vulnerability of the "bully bookers" themselves. Readers will cheer for Eric as he regains control of his life.

A meticulous anatomy of a bullying victim. Determinedly normal Eric Haskins is dumbfounded when his best friend, just back from camp, joins with a couple of other boys to call him "Grunt" at the beginning of sixth grade. Pretty soon, Eric is the class pariah; even decent and stalwart Melody turns away. A couple of chance remarks convince Eric that he's just the latest in a long line of sixth-grade Grunts and that the bullies are actually working from a manual. Readers know that Eric's right, because interspersed with his journal entries chronicling his miserable year are excerpts from the titular Bully Book, which advises, "You have to create yourself. And to keep yourself safe, you have to create other people too, like the Grunt." Eric's quest to uncover the Bully Book is genuinely suspenseful. The juxtaposition of Eric's journal against the Bully Book allows readers to see both the bullies' methodology and Eric's unwitting complicity. Gale gutsily portrays a gloves-off sixth-grade classroom in which variations of "gay" are flung around as insults (a usage that Eric articulately and bravely challenges). While it's hard to imagine even the numbest substitute teacher routinely allowing a vocabulary lesson to become a bullying opportunity ("Eric Haskins is generally stupid"), the other adults in Eric's life are convincingly ineffectual or self-deluded. A compelling and unusual look at a complex and intractable problem that succeeds admirably as story as well. (Fiction. 8-12)

Gr 4-7 Previously published as an ebook, this is a chillingly realistic portrayal of bullying. Sixth-grader Eric Haskins, formerly normal to the outside world, has been chosen to be this year's "Grunt"-the target of an all-encompassing bullying scheme. When all of his friends turn against him, he discovers the root of his problems, The Bully Book , and methodically attempts to locate its origin and author, and find out why he has been targeted. Realizing that the practice goes beyond the misery of his sixth-grade year to past victims, he is determined to stop it from claiming future students. Alternately told through Eric's journal entries and The Bully Book 's cruel directives ("You've got to ruin the Grunt's friendships&30;You need to start fights between the grunt and his friends. Spread rumors that will cause trouble"), the story is fast paced, with strong character voice in the writing. Readers will experience the depressive reality of a bullied child as they try to solve the mystery along with Eric. Those who have been victims will root for him as he tries to make sense of the warfare waged against him, while others may recognize tendencies in themselves that should be altered. Great for discussion. Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA