Artfully designed in black and white using abstracted portions of enlarged letterforms, Please Don’t Say An X Word offers a jumping off point for that all-important discussion about verbal abuse and bullying with upper elementary and middle school students. But first, what is an x word? In math, x stands for a missing quantity, as in the equation 2(x) = 4, where x equals 2. And so it is in this book, where x words stand for all the bad, angry, hurtful words we use to denigrate others in the heat of an argument. Using just the right amount of humor and thoughtfulness, W. Nikola-Lisa, author of the award-winning Bein’ With You This Way, urges us to reflect on how we talk to each other, at the same time encouraging us to explore the incredible beauty and richness of language.