This is a great story that shines a light on "bullying." Gertie the elephant persuades everyone on the playground to shun Bunny citing that she is really mean. All the animals agree to the Bunny boycott except Kitty.

Kitty starts pondering such ideas as: How did Bunny become a bully? Was she born that way? Did she catch the bully flu and is it contagious? Did she take a tumble and get a nasty lump? or Does she have an allergy that gave her bullybumps?... just to name a few. Kitty thinks that just perhaps Bunny may be sorry for her indiscretions and maybe giving her a second chance might be the right thing to do. Will Kitty persuade the other animals to join her as she reaches out to Bunny to include her in the playground games?


Written in cadenced rhyming text the storyline includes compassion, empathy, inclusiveness, fairness and friendship. The illustrations greatly enrich the text and the book is a wonderful choice to start conversations about bullying whether at home or in a classroom situation. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great start on an important conversation - especially in younger elementary classrooms - but I wish the book had gone a bit further. As a teacher, it was always frustrating to me that parents don't understand what a BULLY is. There is a difference between someone lashing out because they're having a bad day and someone being a legitimate BULLY. A good message for kids to understand the difference - and to not ostracize a child just because of one incident, but I don't think the book went far enough to explain this.

I thought that this was a lovely little story. I liked how it focussed on inclusion and not just believing what others tell you too. The images are delightful and I thought the whole thing was executed really well.

It is 5 stars from me for this one and it is definitely a book I would read again and again with my daughter - very highly recommended!

This book has an important message, but one I thought could've been taken further.

An elephant tells all the other animals on the playground to stay away from Bunny because she's a bully. We don't know exactly what Bunny did to deserve this ostracizing, but the kids run with it. All the kids except for Kitty, that is. They wonder if Bunny's always been a bully and what makes her that way. Eventually, the kids all decide to give Bunny another chance and let her back into the group.

I think the issue I have with this is that the question in the title isn't satisfactorily addressed. From what I can tell, Bunny isn't actually a bully. It sounds more like she was just having an off day and said or did something that the other kids didn't like. That is not bullying. That's making a mistake. There's no indication that Bunny's words or actions were repetitive or sustained. Too many people today are quick to hurl accusations of bullying around whenever someone says something they don't like, even if it's only said once. Sorry, but that's not bullying. This book had the opportunity to clear up that misconception. Unfortunately, it didn't. The elephant harping on and on about Bunny being so terrible seemed more like bullying to me, given the fact that it was repetitive and there was a clear power imbalance (elephant versus bunny).

So this book, while attempting to deal with bullying and empathy, kind of missed the mark. The illustrations are cute, but the story that goes along with them is a bit weak in places. I would definitely sit down with a child and have a discussion about the themes here, if they're going to read the book; there's a lot of potential for misunderstanding what bullying actually is.

The first few pages I felt sorry for bunny. I had no idea what she’d done to get labeled a bully but her sadness and Loneliness bothered me. This book shows that you can’t always know the situation so it’s often easy to judge without finding out the truth. Also bullying is a serious matter, many people are not bullies, they’re just experiencing different emotions and misunderstandings occur. Labeling someone as a bully is pretty serious so be sure you know the whole Story.

Cute rhymes and illustrations in a book that can help children better understand bullying.