Maybe you know someone like Daelyn - or maybe you've lived some of what she's gone through. She's the narrator of Julie Ann Peters' latest book By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead. Daelyn seemed marked by bullies from an early age, maybe because she was heavy, or didn't fit in, or just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. By ten years old she had already attempted suicide. This intense story takes you inside her head, inside the countdown to her plans to take her own life. The tension builds to a surprising ending that made me want to immediately talk about it with others who'd read it.
Jennifer Brown's Hate List is a kind of horror story that looks at bullying from another - and pretty startling - viewpoint. Valerie and her boyfriend have had it with harassment from the popular kids; they bond over their hatred and even make a list of the kids they most despise - "The Hate List." But imagine Valerie's horror when her boyfriend uses the list in a violent rampage that leaves many victims and unexpected consequences.
Some of the most popular teen books of the year are looking at the nightmare of bullying, including Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia, Bystander by James Preller, and Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman.
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