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Summary
Summary
Bully doesn't have a kind word for any of his friends. When the other animals ask him to play, he responds in the way he's been taught:
Chicken! Slow poke! You stink!
Laura Vaccaro Seeger's bold, graphic artwork, along with her spare but powerful words, make for a tender, hilarious, and thoughtful tale. This title has Common Core connections.
A Neal Porter Book
Author Notes
Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a New York Times best-selling author and illustrator. Laura is also a 2-time Caldecott Honor Award winner as well as a winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Best Picture Book, and a 2-time winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award. She is also the recipient of the Empire State Award for Body of Work and Contribution to Children's Literature.
Laura's paintings have been exhibited in many museums and galleries including the Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Public Library.
Laura earned her BFA degree at the School of Fine Art and Design at the State University of New York at Purchase. She moved to Manhattan to begin a career as an animator, artist, designer, and editor in the network television business. She created show openings and special segments for NBC and ABC for many years and won an Emmy Award for an NBC Special opening animation.
Laura is the author of the Dog and Bear Series, First the Egg, Green, I Had a Rooster, Lemons are Not Red, One Boy, The Hidden Alphabet, Walter was Worried, and What If?
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-On the cover, bold black lines on an angry tomato-red background depict the scowling title character. Seeger sets the emotional tone from the very start: this is one mean bull. Front endpapers offer a clue to his behavior as readers see a larger, adult bull shout, "Go away!" The rejected little guy hangs his head, and, as many real-life bullies do, turns his hurt into anger. When he comes upon a group of animals who want to play, he puffs himself up in a near-identical pose to his adult counterpart and shouts, "No!" He proceeds to insult them with literal names ("CHICKEN!" "PIG!") that lend a bit of levity and humor to an otherwise serious story. With each insult, the bull's bravado makes him larger and larger, filling and then expanding outside the frame of the pages. Children will recognize and respond to this powerful visual depiction of rage. By the time he yells "YOU STINK!" at the skunk, only his two giant front hooves and enormous snout are visible. When the bull is finally forced to confront what he has become, viewers see him deflate like an overinflated balloon and become small. Again, Seeger lightens the mood with this touch of cartoon whimsy. Spare text and simple drawings allow the antibullying message to come across clearly without being heavy-handed or didactic. The arc of the bull's experience engenders discussion and encourages the quest for satisfying solutions.-Kiera Parrott, Darien Library, CT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Seeger (Green) uses boldly inked barnyard animals to tell her story about bullying, casting a bull in the title role. The trouble starts when the young bull is rejected by an older one: "Go away!" it shouts. The young bull is shaken, but he's learned something-how to hurt others. When a rabbit, chicken, and turtle in the barnyard ask him to play, he grumps "No," then hurls insults at them, names that are no more than the literal truth. "Chicken!" he yells at the chicken, who jumps in the air. "Slowpoke!" he shouts at the turtle. "You stink!" he screams at a skunk. The more he abuses the others, the larger he grows, his angry bluster feeding his self-importance. At last a goat speaks truth to power: "Bully!" the goat cries. "Bully?" the bull repeats to himself. All the inflated air blows out of him, and he tosses and tumbles across a spread like a balloon let loose. Tearfully, he makes peace. Seeger's pages pop with action, and the lesson couldn't be clearer. Ages 3-7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Showing that she can be just as clever with words as she is with images, Seeger takes on name-calling in this barnyard drama. The action begins before the title page with a large gray bull telling a little brown bull to "GO AWAY!"; with a page turn, we see the dejected little brown bull making his way across the title page. When he comes across other animals in the yard who ask him to play, he calls them names: "CHICKEN!" "SLOW POKE!" "PIG!" We can see from each animal's reaction that the names hurt, in spite of the fact that each name the bull uses is based on the species' actual name or a defining characteristic. We can also see that the bull seems to grow in stature with each pejorative he shouts, as if the belittling is literal. When a billy goat comes back with a disparaging name for the bull -- "BULLY!" -- it hurts his feelings so much that it brings him right back down to size, and he makes a tearful apology. The complete narrative appears in dialogue bubbles in quick bursts of one or two syllables, and the pictures tell the rest of the story by showing only the animal characters and the barnyard fence drawn in thick lines and in flat colors on textured rice paper. Perfect for the preschool set, the book is deceptively simple at first glance, but, as with name-calling itself, there is a lot going on beneath the surface. kathleen t. horning (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Characteristically impeccable design distinguishes Seeger's latest, even as pacing risks its overall success. The cover's bold, red background emphasizes a brown bull's surly expression--he's seeing red emotionally as surely as readers see it behind him. But then, the frontispiece shows him looking downright cowed as a large, gray bull shouts, "GO AWAY!" Clearly pained, the brown bull roundly rejects a group of animals that invites him to play. Wordplay makes his cruel remarks pack a wallop: "CHICKEN!" he shouts at a hen; "SLOW POKE!" at a turtle; "PIG!" at, well, a pig. A bee and skunk feel his ire, too. Then, a goat evoking the bravery of the Billy Goats Gruff facing down the troll retorts, "BULLY!" "Bully?" the brown bull asks in a picture employing an effective direct gaze at readers. On the next spread, the bull is depicted multiple times, sent into a physical tailspin representing his emotional upheaval. He apologizes on the antepenultimate page, and then, over just two spreads, he invites the animals to play, and they accept. This resolution arrives a bit too quickly, and questions linger about the gray bull, bee, skunk and the heroic goat. Perhaps, then, this book is best a conversation starter about bullying rather than a fully developed story or commentary on this pressing social issue. (Picture book. 5-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* After a big bull tells him to go away, a little bull looks hurt and dejected. When a friendly rabbit, chicken, and turtle ask him if he wants to play, to each smaller animal, he bellows his answer (NO!). He grows larger (CHICKEN!), and LARGER (SLOWPOKE!) with each name he calls. After seven name-calling episodes, he has grown so enormous that only his hoof fits in the picture book. The tables are turned when a goat yells BULLY! Bully? asks the bull, looking hurt and insecure. Suddenly deflated, he apologizes to his friends and asks, Wanna play? Bold black lines and flat colors define the images of the animals, which stand out against the textured, ivory-toned backgrounds. Delivered in speech balloons, the only text is terse dialogue delivered in a font that grows larger as the bull roars louder. His ego deflates in an amusing, cartoonlike scene, showing him spinning like a punctured balloon. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the book is the consideration of the bully's point of view. Intelligently conceived and beautifully executed, this picture book is visually and verbally pared down to essentials, making it accessible to a wide age range. Yet for all its simplicity, this story opens up a number of complex issues for discussion.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
In four picture books, a menagerie of creatures teaches lessons on making friends and getting along. NO child (except yours and mine) is nice all the time. But we don't look the other way anymore when children are mean. Four new picture books about bullying substitute animals for children. This charming menagerie lightens things up, allows us to laugh, and sometimes sneaks in - or rams through - a valuable lesson. In Kate Messner's "Sea Monster and the Bossy Fish," Ernest the sea monster (familiar to readers of "Sea Monster's First Day") welcomes a newcomer to fish school who has trouble making friends. The new fish doles out unwelcome nicknames and hogs the dress-up clothes. "I'm a ninja-cowboy-dinosaur-wizard!" The last straw comes when he starts an exclusive club: "The Fresh Fish Club is for all of the cool fish - Lurch the Perch, Big Mouth, Smelly Smelt. You too, Ernesto-Saurus! I'm president." Ernest, taking the high road, starts a new club that welcomes all. "I decided I'd rather be a Friend Fish than a Fresh Fish," he says. Silly jokes are woven into Andy Rash's cartoonish illustrations; Ernest eats Sea Stars cereal, and the library has a book entitled "The World According to Carp." Though the text is heavy-handed, especially when Ernest is setting things right, Messner, author of the Marty McGuire chapter book series, subtly implies that the new fish is behaving badly because he feels vulnerable. Despite his abrasiveness, he wants to earn respect and make friends. Young readers will relate as they settle into the new school year. Alex Latimer, a South African writer and illustrator, doesn't hit us over the head with a message in "Lion vs. Rabbit." Lion is mean, and the other animals are too scared to stand up to him - Zebra brings a note from his mother - so they post an ad: "We need someone to make Lion stop bullying us. Reward of 100 bucks (mostly gazelle)." A few candidates apply for the job, but only Rabbit can get the better of Lion. Rabbit wins every competition: marshmallow eating, trivia quiz, foot race and more. Children may catch on to his sneaky ways - there are hints in the pictures - but Lion never does. "You're amazing," Lion says. "You win. I'll stop bullying the animals." It's too bad that Latimer renders Lion's victims overly passive and the aggressor a changed man only because he lost a bet; it makes the resolution less satisfying. Though peace is restored, neither the bully nor the victims have really learned anything. As in his earlier book "The Boy Who Cried Ninja," Latimer's illustrations are quirky and dryly funny. Most of the animals are drawn minimally, with Twinkieshaped bodies and Popsicle-stick legs. When Lion steals Hyena's "lunch monkey," Hyena holds the limp, dead monkey in one hand and a fork in the other. And when Rabbit sails home with his reward, his ship is indeed loaded with the gazelle bucks he was promised. Adults may wish for more depth, but older children will appreciate Latimer's edginess. For her very young audience, Laura Vaccaro Seeger uses little text and deceptively simple images to say a lot in "Bully." The animals' bodies are illustrated in crisp, flat colors with sketchy black outlines, while animated eyebrows and mouths emphasize their feelings. A background resembling handmade paper evokes the look and texture of barnyard hay. Seeger, winner of Caldecott Honors for "First the Egg" (2007 ) and "Green" (2012 ), sets the story in motion before the title page; a big bull tells a smaller one to "Go away!," launching the angry little bull on his tirade. As the story continues, he lashes out at his friends with insults so direct they're funny: "Chicken!" to the chicken, "Slow poke!" to the turtle, and so on. With each unkind remark he appears more aggressive and powerful; both his body and the text get larger and larger. Finally, the goat calls it like it is: "Bully!" Now deflated, the bull utters one small word, "Sorry," as a tear rolls down his cheek. What's lovely about "Bully" is that the little bull is a sympathetic character throughout. Having shown us the reason for his anger, Seeger offers children a way to root for him. She also provides a way out. Goat demonstrates that he doesn't need to act like a victim, and the other animals give the bull another chance. Anna Dewdney similarly writes touchingly about the emotions of young children. In "Llama Llama and the Bully Goat," the latest title in the best-selling Llama series, she presents characters that resemble Seeger's: an angry bully who gets a second chance and a friend who stands up to and later forgives him. Gilroy Goat is having a lousy day, culminating in an insult-hurling, sandthrowing tantrum on the playground. Llama Llama and Nelly Gnu, in Dewdney's bouncy rhyming text, don't flinch: "Gilroy, this is not O.K. Stop it, or we'll go away." As Gilroy continues to selfdestruct in the background, Llama and Nelly take the narrator's advice: "Being bullied is no fun! Walk away . . . and tell someone!" Gilroy, who stays near the teacher the rest of the day (she knits next to him when he sits in time out), finally pulls himself together, and it's Llama who asks him to play again. Dewdney uses textured brush strokes to paint characters with expressive faces and body language against bright, beautifully contrasting background colors. Children will recognize the familiar preschool setting, complete with circle time, recess and a gentle teacher who just happens to be a zebra. Like Seeger, Dewdney offers young readers a model for empathy, courage and forgiveness. It's an unfair, if not surprising, coincidence that the bullies in all four books are boys. (Alas, bullying is an equal opportunity offense.) But these bullies get a chance to show they're good on the inside. And, with the exception of Latimer's helpless chumps, their friends show their inner strength, too. * Bossy animals get their comeuppance, and a second chance: From left, "Bully," "Lion vs. Rabbit" and "Llama Llama and the Bully Goat." SEA MONSTER AND THE BOSSY FISH By Kate Messner Illustrated by Andy Rash 40 pp. Chronicle Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5) LION VS. RABBIT Written and illustrated by Alex Latimer 32 pp. Peachtree. $15.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) BULLY Written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger 40 pp. A Neal Porter Book/ Roaring Brook Press. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7) LLAMA LLAMA AND THE BULLY GOAT Written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney 40 pp. Viking. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5) Becca Zerkin, a paper engineer, is working on a pop-up science book for children.