by David Gordon
While Karen, an adorable bunny rabbit, is building a sand castle at the playground, a bully named Skyler destroys it. She is crushed, but is comforted by her animal friends who help her build another one. This time, Skyler and two of his fellow bullies ravage it together. The pattern repeats until Karen gets angry and brings in some heavy machinery to help her with a solution.
The animals in this picture book are truly cute, and they do operate some heavy machinery. The bullies are kind of cute as well, but have angry eyes and yellow teeth. They are typical bullies...prideful, intimidating, and mean. Children who have been bullied will likely relate to the story and the overwhelming angry feelings that accommodate being bullied. However, I did not love this book. In my opinion, the author presented a real-life problem, bullying, but did not equip the reader with a realistic solution. When children who are being bullied feel angry, they will not be able to build an amusement park that can't be knocked down and keep the bullies out. There are a few positive life lessons that can be taken from the story, though: be a good friend, don't give up, it is alright to feel angry, and include everyone. (4 to 8 year olds)
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Additional books by David Gordan:
