Two-time Caldecott Honor artist Laura Vaccaro Seeger digs deeply into the emotional lives of youngest children with an honest picture book that acknowledges cruelty's vicious cycle.
A large gray bull yells "GO AWAY!" at a smaller brown bull. Bold black type and all capital letters in a speech balloon indicate the gray bull's ferocity, while the brown bull's woeful eyes and posture of retreat betray his hurt feelings. That's the lead-in to the title page. The brown bull hangs his head as the word Bully blares across the title page in red letters that take up nearly half the page. The book begins when a rabbit, hen and turtle stand together as the rabbit asks, "Wanna play?" With a turn of the page, the brown bull has grown in size, his eyebrows draw together, and he yells, "NO!" The rabbit scampers off, and the hen's and turtle's eyes grow wide in surprise. He scares them off, too, page by page, one at a time: "CHICKEN!" "SLOW POKE!"
Seeger, who seems to invent an artistic approach with nearly every book (Green; First the Egg), adopts a completely new style for this examination of the dynamics of bullying. Closer in style to What If? and her Dog and Bear books, Bully features characters in a thick black outline and solid colors to keep the focus on the animals' body language and facial expressions. An oatmeal-colored background with the look of handmade paper provides texture to the barnyard setting without distracting from the main action. A ghosted gray split-rail fence provides the gauge for the brown bull's growing physique and also underscores the sense of the animals being literally penned in by the bull's energy.
Each time the brown bull makes fun of the farm creatures ("BUZZ OFF!" he yells at a bee; "YOU STINK!" he says to the skunk), he puffs up ever larger, until only his front hooves and snout may be seen. But when a goat calls his bluff ("BULLY!"), children will recognize the reappearance of the expression the brown bull wore at the beginning. His ego deflates. He apologizes to the rabbit, hen and turtle. The turtle, who'd been poised to retreat, turns around. The constraining fence now reveals an opening, and the three head off together--the brown bull at the right size.
Seeger both acknowledges that bullying can start early in childhood, but also shows that a little kindness can go a long way to reverse its effects. --Jennifer M. Brown
Shelf Talker: A two-time Caldecott Honor artist exposes the cycle of cruelty that bullying sets in motion in this insightful picture book for youngest children.