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5 Stars When a Dragon Moves In Jodi Moore Howard McWilliam 23 Pages     Ages: 4 to 8 ........ .......... Inside Jacket:  If you build a perfect sandcastle, a dragon will move in—and that’s exactly what happens to one very lucky boy on the beach. The boy and his dragon brave the waves, roast marshmallows, roam [...]

4 Stars We're All Different But We're All Kitty Cats Peter Goodman Nicholas Milano No. Pages: 4 Ages: 4+ ................... Inside Jacket: “My name is Carlos and I have no fur.” A kitty with no fur? How strange, thought the other cat, laughing and giggling at Carlos. Hurt and embarrassed in front of the class, [...]

I was bullied as a teen. As an adult, I’ve come to realize almost everyone has been bullied as a child, so of course, now I feel more “normal”. But at the time, I was terrified. The girls who tormented me rode on my bus and would incessantly scream obscenities at me. When I walked off the bus, they would throw things out the window, spit at me, and call me horrible names (some of which I didn’t even know the meaning). I was pushed and shoved and made to feel worthless.

The movie “Bully” seeks to shed light on the mean boys and girls and start a meaningful dialogue between students, teachers and parents affected by bullying. However, the Motion Picture Association of America recently rated the movie “R” so it cannot be screened in schools, the one place it could really make an impact.

Like Seth Myers and Amy Poehler, I want to ask, “Really?!?”

Please watch the trailer and then sign a change.org petition by teenager Katy Butler asking the MPAA to give “Bully” a PG-13 rating.

As a footnote, I recently learned that the girl who led the bullying against me has been in jail for years. Karma? No. I think she needed more help than I did. Let’s remember that the bullies may be going through difficult times at home and their anger is an outlet and a call for help.

Thanks so much for reading.

Facebook gets back to its roots — students — with its latest feature (called “Groups for Schools.” The feature allows university students to create groups that are only visible to students with official university email addresses.... Read the rest of this post

We chatted with Naomi Hirabayashi and Chloe Lee at DoSomething about their new anti-bullying effort — a bullying census on Facebook tied with the release of the documentary “Bully.” They’re hoping not only to get an accurate picture of... Read the rest of this post

Spotify is adding brand apps to its streaming service which means that major companies (will soon be able to suggest playlists. AT&T, Reebok, Intel, and McDonald’s are among the first to create such apps, and by entering the music space,... Read the rest of this post

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Knowing what I know—that the word bulldozer is supposed to have evolved from the brute force of beating someone up, this brute force seen as worthy of having an effect on a bull—it makes sense that the word bully might come from a similar bovine source.

But it doesn’t.

It actually seems to come from the opposite end of the love-hate spectrum.

When the word bully first appeared in English it didn’t mean the type of person for which school anti-bullying programs were designed. Instead, someone you were very very fond of might be someone you would call a bully.

The thinking is that before its 1538 emergence into English the word had been Dutch.

The Dutch word I see translated as “sweetheart” and “lover.”

Domestic violence aside, that’s a long way from the meaning we think of.

How it made the leap from someone who makes you want to cuddle to someone who makes you cringe isn’t really known but there are a few enticing clues.

Most of the sources I consulted simply describe a gradual change from a darling person, to a good friend, to a good person, to someone who puts on a good face, and finally someone who threatens to put something covered in knuckles on your face.

There is that bull/bulldozer idea that might have had an influence.

But there is also the fact that for a while the good friend/lover meaning leant the word bully as a term for “pimp.”

Though the dictionaries don’t make any connections in this regard it seems to me that a pimp can simultaneously play the role of good-friend and tough-guy/enforcer.

Tod Munn is in trouble. Big trouble. So what's he done? He takes kids' money. He breaks kids' glasses. He makes kids scared. Tod's a smart mouth with grown-ups, but even worse, he's just too smart for his own gang. After they all get caught, Tod has a choice: Juvenile Detention, or daily detention after school with Mrs. Woodrow. His punishment is to scrawl his thoughts and feelings in a composition notebook. His gang's punishment is to pick up trash from the school grounds. Tensions rise as the stakes get higher. Can the power of words free Tod from the terrible cycle he is in? To read more, click here.

Invisible Inkling by  Emily Jenkins Hank Wolowitz, please call him Wolowitz, lives with his sister and parents in an apartment above their Brooklyn ice cream shop called the “Big Round Pumpkin: Ice Cream for a Happy World.”  His best friend Wainscotting has moved to Iowa City leaving Wolowitz feeling alone. It doesn’t help that Wolowitz [...]

Inspired by Minnesota House majority leader Matt Dean‘s attack on author Neil Gaiman, Twitter sensation Evil Wylie created a web comic based on famous Charles Atlas ads.

Earlier this week, Dean criticized Minnesota’s House Legacy Funding Division for paying the novelist for a speaking engagement.  The legislator called the author  “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.”

Above, we’ve  embedded Wylie’s complete comic. What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

4 STARS Phillip Isaac Penn, who goes by the nickname “PIP,” shares a week of his error prone life where he seems to hear his name as more of a shout than anything else.  He awakes to the sounds of his mother calling out, “Pip!” Then dad chimes in with “Pip.” And then sister yells [...]