The Bully and Me: Stories that Break the Cycle of Torment

Helen Carmichael Porter has been touring her stories about victims and bullies for over seven years. The stories inThe Bully and Me are first person accounts by both victims and bullies. The victims try to change the situation and usually, but not always, succeed. The stories are descriptive narratives of what happens to real people. They are based on Porter’s observations, countless interviews, personal experience, and imagination. The book explores the idea that victims and bullies are two sides of the same coin and that the healing of both lies in dealing with this paradox. There is not a lot of real violence in these stories; there is some, and much of it is implied in threats, taunts, gossip, e-mails, gestures, and language. Most of the bullying is teasing and it is always designed to torment and ridicule. The Bully and Me also refers to biblical and folk tales in the comments showing how bullying is not a new problem. This is not a self-help book; it is about listening to and thinking about the stories of bullying that happen everyday in our homes, our schools, and our communities.