A Great Book About a Bully and a Tattletale in the Making
The Snitch by Tonya Duncan Ellis is a winner of the Purple Dragonfly Book Award. The saga of Sophie Washington continues as Sophie, and her friend Chloe become victims of Lanie Mitchell, the class bully. Everyone knows there’s nothing worse than becoming known as a snitch or tattletale at Xavier.
This delightful chapter book is appropriate for middle-grade students. It accurately describes the dilemma children face today. How bad do things have to get before someone finds the courage to talk to an adult?
I’ll tell you how bad it can get. It can become so dramatic that an honor student loses the future she should have as a result of a severe brain injury she suffers at the hands of the bullies. I know. She is the daughter of a dear friend.
The Snitch is a book that cries out for parents to read it with their children. If we don’t begin the discussions now, more children will be hurt. Some of the damage isn’t reversible.
The only disappointing aspect of the book for me was the fact that Sophie didn’t acknowledge that her treatment of her little brother, Cole, might border on bullying too. These interactions would have been an excellent opportunity to take the lesson to a higher level.
The artwork was well-done, making the transition from picture books to chapter books easy for young readers.
Book Description
There’s nothing worse than being a tattletale.
That’s what 10-year-old Sophie Washington thinks until she runs into Lanie Mitchell, a new girl at school. Lanie pushes Sophie and her friends around at their lockers and even takes their lunch money in this entertaining, illustrated chapter book for middle-grade readers. If they tell, they are scared the other kids in their class will call them snitches and won’t be their friends. And when you’re in the fifth grade nothing seems worse than that.
Then a classmate gets seriously injured, and Sophie needs to make a decision: fight back, or snitch?
About Tonya Duncan Ellis
Today is Multicultural Children’s Book Day, where we celebrate diverse stories by diverse authors.
Connect with Tonya Duncan Ellis
Amazon Author Page where you can find all the Sophie Washington Books
Website
Just like Elle Burton, Sophie Washington takes on the class bully and the results are a lesson every child must learn before it’s too late.
