I am proud to have a guest blogger for this book review- my 7 year old daughter wanted to write this book review since she read the book. This is her first book report and blog post. I’m so excited! So here goes.
The Cardboard Girl Gives Bullying The Flick by Marika Spaseska
Book Review by A.N.
The Cardboard Girl was my favorite book because Cora taught Erin how to stand up to Brooke, the bully. This book is about a girl named Erin who gets bullied by a girl named Brooke. Cora keeps trying to help, but Erin thinks Cora won’t be able to help her. Erin brother, Michael, her parents, her babysitter, and everybody she knows ignore her except for Cora. Erin keeps having bad dreams about Brooke. In one of the chapters Brooke says that she is going to kill Erin if she doesn’t invite her to her birthday party. Cora overheard and told Erin to talk to the teacher. The teacher told Erin that Brooke was from a big family and she was used to talking in that kind of language. The teacher said that Brooke meant that she really wanted to go to the birthday party and she felt left out. Brooke didn’t know how to properly ask for what she wanted so she bullied instead. Brooke told Erin that if she told on her again that that was it and she would hurt her really badly. At the end of the book Brooke told Erin that she has a lot of problems at home and her father always yelled and that is why she was being such a bully. In the end Erin stood up to Brooke. Brooke asked if they could be friends and Erin said yes.
I hope you will read this book and like it as much as I did. I learned from this book that you should never stand up to a bully alone. You should always ask for a grown ups help when dealing with a bully. You can try to show bullies that you don’t care that they are picking on you and maybe they will stop. Bullies bully other people to make them feel bad about themselves and to make themselves feel better. Bullies also bully other people to bring those people down and to bring themselves to the top.
From Cori- As a parent I like that this fictional book that involves bullying and teaches young girls how to deal with a bully if they get in that situation. This book is great for opening up a dialogue with young girls about bullying. We need to empower young girls to be able to talk about being bullied and give them the tools to handle this type of situation.
Check out the book and author on her website- http://thecardboardgirl.com
Check out The Cardboard Girl on Facebook.
Top 10 Bully-proof tips to protect your children from the author, Marika Spaseska-
Top 10 Bully-proof tips to protect your children include:
· Develop and sustain positive, core values. It is vital that children know what is acceptable, to have respect for others, know their boundaries and values. For example, it is NOT okay to exclude others from being friends; it’s not okay to put others down, etc.
· You are responsible for your child’s self esteem. Children lack the discernment and insight to know that perception or opinion may not be true. Empower your child’s self esteem and confidence and create an environment where your child feels they can openly talk to you. Children may not want to tell anyone if they feel they deserve this type of treatment (bullying), caused it, or that telling would make it worse.
· Teach kids to care. Encourage kids to show they understand and care for others when they’re upset or having a hard time. You want your kids to grow up to understand children’s emotions, feelings, their fears, wishes and dreams.
· Encourage your children to develop outside, strong relationships and social and physical activities so that they have a life outside of school. Exercise may make kids feel better, too. Support them to make friends outside of school, create time for them, invite them home or to outings. By doing this they are not solely relying on friends at school.
· Break down gender roles – girls are expected to be nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing. If you don’t conform to this stereotype you can be picked on or put-down. Children can be whoever they want to be. They need to value themselves and not be judgmental of what others do or look like or if they stray from these norms.
· Encourage kids to open up about their worries, to talk about things that upset them. By talking about what is happening to someone, be it family, friends, teacher or a counsellor – they will reduce their stress and anxiety levels. There is evidence to suggest that confident children who feel supported by their families and friends are better able to cope with bullying and other pitfalls.
· Empower children to take some control themselves over their behaviour (their mood/temper). This will make your life a bit easier and they will feel better, too, if they can learn to better deal with their frustrations. For example, skills they need to learn when frustrated include: walk away, time alone, time out, writing thoughts down, playing or doing something else and talking to someone about what is going on for them. Do not support aggressive behaviour nor conduct yourself in this manner, as children learn directly from parents and others closest to them. Praise them for good behaviour.
· Have discussions early with your children about what is bullying and what they can do to stop it. You want to teach your child that if faced with bullying, that they can speak up: tell the kid who is bullying them to stop hurting them or others and that this is unfair. You want your child to be able to tell the ‘bully’ that what they are saying is nasty and hurtful and that they have no right to speak to them like that. Inspire your children: it’s ok to stand up for themselves.
· Teach your kids not to watch and be a bystander to bullying. Tell them that if they stay, it may encourage someone who bullies. Support your kids to be able to tell the person who bullies to stop or urge the other child who is being bullied to walk away with them.
· Don’t allow children to watch violent TV or participate in violent video games.
About The Author- Marika Spaseska
Born in Macedonia, former Yugoslavia, Marika Spaseska arrived in Perth, Western Australia, at two years of age.
Despite friendly jibes from her peers that English is her ‘second language’, she commenced a journalism degree before switching to study Social Work.
Having worked for over 17 years as a Social Worker, Marika has well-recognised clinical, managerial and project/policy work skills.
She is passionate about children’s wellbeing and hope’s to empower them.
Inspired by a niece who experienced bullying at school, as well as her striking insight as a Social Worker, her first book has the potential to enable children to better deal with those that bully them.
She wants children to aim for the moon and reach it too!
Disclosure: I was not compensated for performing this review. I received a free book to read and review. The opinions and statements expressed by me (and my daughter) in this post are my own personal and honest opinion of this book.
