-- Review of Kathy Noll's Taking the Bully by the Horns

I was once bullied by a jerk who wanted to show off in front of his friends . He took a chair from me during school when I was sitting down and I fell on the floor. I said to my friends that guy's an idiot and he heard me. He started to hit and kick me and then walked away. I didn't hit him back because he was bigger and older than me. A week later my father found out and we ran into him at the pizza place. My father went up to him and threatened to break his nose off if he touched me again. Since then he has not bothered me. I felt good because he was punished and embarrassed.

The book, Nasty People, explains why bullies bully. Now I understand that he bothered me because he felt really small inside and I was an easy target because I was new in the school. People used to make fun of him because of his grades and he probably felt bad about himself and decided to take it out on other people.

I liked this book because it tells you how to take care of bullies, why they are bullies and what makes a bully. It tells about the bully cycle: when somebody gets bullied after awhile he tries to act tough and bullies when he is feeling very small inside and lacks respect for his self.

It's a good book and it teaches you how to take care of bullies. You confront him with the problem and then he'll understand that he's doing something wrong, and try to reform. If he doesn't, just ignore him.

A bully picks somebody so that he can take his anger about feeling bad about himself out on somebody else. He picks somebody smaller than him without too many friends. Somebody he thinks won't tell anybody.

In my class kids are still bullying other kids but I'm not getting bullied because they know if they bother me, I'll beat them up. If I see somebody bullying I try to stop him. When a big person is pushing a little person in line to go to the water fountain, I tell him to stop, for example.

It also tells how to know if you're a victim or not. If you feel bad and you don't know why, if you have dreams that you're a Ninja fighter , if you dream of revenge, if you avoid passing people's houses, then you're a victim.

You've got to confront the bully.

If he ignores you, then you've got to get help from an adult.