Written by two teachers, Jennie Withers and Phyllis Hendrickson, M. Ed., Hey, Back Off! sheds lights on the topics of Teen Harassment and Bullying At School.  It helps both parents and teens understand more about the Harassment Law , the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing harassment),  the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (prohibiting discrimination based on disability).

This book helps readers realize different types of bullying: cyberbullying (sending mean text messages), sexual harassment, verbal teasing, and hitting or punching.  It explores different cases and different personalities:  passive teens (who have passive parents) becoming victims, and bullies being bullies because they have aggressive parents, and it shows how a person can become assertive from being passive or aggressive.  It portrays true life experiences of agressive people and how they become that way.  After reading the chapters on these cases of Passive Personalities and Aggressive Personalities, I realized that the authors have helped people on both sides of the spectrum:  victims of bullying and the bullies.

October was the Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.  www.nctsn.org is an important web site to check out.  Go to "Resources, "Public Awareness", click on "Bullying Prevention Awareness Month" to learn about "Facts and Tips for Teens" to stay safe from cyberbullying.  This site also provides us with links regarding other types of abuse/bullying:  "Finding Help for Sexually Abused Children", "National Homeless Youth Awareness Month", and "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month".  Under "Get Help Now", there are links to crisis hotlines, victim assistance programs, how to deal with school crises, how to help abused or neglected children, and more.

Written by two conselors and moms, Gina Scarano-Osika and KimDever-Johnson, this book You Grow Girl:  A Self-Empowering Workbook for Tweens and Teens is definitely a book to be shared with your friends and you parents/teachers/conselors.  It helps you build self-esteem and body confidence, understand and maintain healthy eating attitudes, learning about stress management and how to cope with stress, how to nourish positive thinking and eliminate negative feelings.  It depicts female role models from various backgrounds and ethnicities.  It encourages teens to become beautiful inside and out by giving teens different scenarios and thought-provoking exercises.  Issues such as culture and peer pressures, deceptive media images, food/weight, mindfulness, etc. are also explored. 

Gracefully prepared by two conselors, this book offers a lot of wisdom to girls ages 9 to 16.  Strongly recommended to not just girls, but to Moms and Dads alike.

After hitting the book market in 2011, this book Inside Out and Back Again quickly became a best-seller.  The month of October was the Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and this book once again was actively sought after.  Every year thousands of high school students are being bullied due to differences in religion and culture or norm, or the way they portray themselves, dress, talk, or socialize.   Among these student victims of bullying, many came from Vietnam.  This book is a series of heartfelt poems telling stories of how Ha`, the protagonist, went through years of being bullied by her classmates, and how she coped with bullying. 

Her story is symbolic of the high school life of many other Vietnamese students and students of other ethnic backgrounds who came here to America when they were in the ages of 9 to 18.  In the end of the book,  Ha` delivered a powerful message to the world:  she stood up, "gave her bullies a lesson" by becoming an excellent student whom both her family members and the school officials were so proud of.

This book won many awards such as Newbery Honor, National Book Award, and was placed on the New York Times Bestsellers list.  You can access the Newbery Medal home page through SJPL (San Jose Public Library) home page, www.sjpl.org, under "Homework, research, articles", then go to "Research Guides", "Books and Literature", "Book Awards", "Newbery Medal".

June was the month to recognize the refugees' plight.  Again, check out the web site www.nctsn.org to understand the refugees and the circumstances they have to live through.  Go to "Resources", "Public Awareness, click on "World Refugee Awareness Month". 

Hopefully you will see the image of yourself and your friends' through these books and the web sites recommended here, and will do your part to foster a better learning environment for your school.

Ha` was one of hundreds of thousands of political refugees who left Vietnam in 1975 when she was 10 years old.  She and her family settled in Alabama.  Her pen-name is Thanhha Lai.  Her first name is Ha`, Thanhha`, or Thanhha.

Callie Jones likes to write. She would like to find other like-minded students, so she decides to try out for the school's first newspaper, The Hawk. A plus for her is the extremely cute advisor, Mr. Fischer. Of course, she has to watch out for her nemesis, Shane.

Once again, Callie finds herself on the wrong-end of Mr. Nolan or "Mr. No-Man." She learns about censorship, bullies, and the power of the press.

Naomi Zucker's Callie is a unique character, much like the title character in Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls series. This title is a continuation of Callie Rules. Anybody who likes to write will surely enjoy Write on, Callie Jones (AR 5.0, Level 4.7)!

Volunteer readers from Project Cornerstone will read One by Kathryn Otoshi to children and families on Tuesday, March 16 at 11:30 AM at the Edenvale Branch Library. The reading of the book will be followed by a discussion of the themes of the book. One is a Silicon Valley Reads Children's Companion book for 2011. One introduces children to numbers, counting, and colors. The book begins with Blue, a mellow character who enjoys looking up at the sky and other activities. Blue likes to be with Yellow, Green, Purple and Orange. Blue feels uncomfortable around Red, a bad-tempered character who bullies the others. Along comes One, who just might have the courage to stand up to Red. What will happen next? Come to the library and find out! This book is great for pre-schoolers and children in grades K-3.

Volunteer readers from Project Cornerstone will read One by Kathryn Otoshi to children and families on Tuesday February 8th at 11:30 a.m. at the Evergreen Branch Library. The book reading will be followed by a discussion of its themes. One is a Silicon Valley Reads Children’s Companion book. It introduces young readers to numbers, counting, and primary and secondary colors by offering the story of ill-tempered Red who got too powerful for his own good and had to be brought down to size by One--a single entity with the courage to stand up for what was right. This book is recommended for kids in grades K-3.

Also check out the author Kathryn Otoshi’s reading of her book.