The Synopsis:
Meet Kitty, a daring and sweet little girl who won’t take anyone talking mean, especially neighborhood bullies who make all the kids cry.
Kitty finally goes face-to-face with the biggest bully who declares to her that girls can’t do anything but “clean and bake cookies”. Instead of flourishing fists and sinking to the bully’s level, she uses her wits and thinks her way out of the situation.
This wonderful story teaches everyone, not only girls, to believe in themselves and not to doubt their dreams and wishes, no matter what those dreams and wishes happen to be.
I received this book from the author/publisher for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.
Review:
Kitty Conquers the Big Bully stars the young Kitty and her adventures and daydreaming. Accompanied by Kitty’s best friends (her stuffed animals), we travel all around the world in rhyming lines as Kitty defies the words of the bully.
During the traveling, the readers will get to learn about many different things that are available as careers and are accompanied by cute pictures to illustrate these options. There is also a lot of encouragement towards chasing one’s dreams and not letting other people’s words get to you. The book also directly says, “don’t lower yourself to the bully’s level” which essentially means not to fire back at them, and I think that that is great advice! However, though all the messages are written to be heard, they fail to be illustrated by the story itself.
The first and foremost is that of name calling, which is done by the narrator (since the book is written in 3rd person). The names used are “brat” (used twice) and “snot” (used once), speaking about the bully all times. Though I get the point of using these words to describe the bully’s character (and though they may be true), but to be used in front of such a young audience is sure to cause name calling towards bullies rather than encouraging the original intentions of “don’t let them get to you” or “don’t fire back”; which unfortunately contradicts the whole message of the book. Also on the very last page, Kitty is featured holding a sign that says “Girls rule, bullies drool” which again, contradicts the whole message of the book.
So though the book has great intentions and encourages the children to dream big and not let other’s quench those dreams, I’m afraid that because of the name-calling and message contradictions, I can only give Kitty Conquers the Big Bully 2 out of 5 stars and do not recommend it.
Rated:
Rayleigh is a Freshman in college with a major in Accounting and long-term goal of being a CPA. She is an avid reader of all genres, and just as much of her time is spent writing as it is reading. She is the Associate Editor and Web Manager for PURSUE Magazine, in addition to posting her monthly articles on their blog. Rayleigh interns for Hartline Literary Agency where she advises authors in the best way to market their books. She is also a Social Media Manager for various businesses.
Her writing pseudonym is Rae Leigh and she is in the process of seeking publication for her Dystopian novella, Program MIRA.