Book 20 of 52: Sticks and Stones by Emily Bazelon

In October, I’m giving a TED talk in Cape May that deals with, in part, how I was bullied in elementary school. I’d heard about Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathyby Emily Bazelon before, and now seemed like a perfect time to read it as I started research for my talk.

I’m not going to say too much about my story here – I’ll save that for October – but a lot of what she described happened to me. That happened to me in the 1980s, and I’m horrified by how social networking, especially Facebook, allows that kind of bullying to happen 24/7. At least in my situation, I could go home, or away from the summer, and get a break. If those girls could start Facebook groups about how much they didn’t like me? I don’t know how I’d have coped.

The book leans a little toward the academic side at times, which isn’t a surprise since Bazelon is an academic as well as a journalist. Still worth the read, especially if you have kids.