Children and Bullying by Todd Rutherford
Brenda Jones’s No I Don’t Want to Play Today: An African Story About Bullying imparts important lessons about bullying, pride, and forgiveness through a story about African animals with beautiful full-page drawings that keep readers fascinated throughout.
Brenda Jones’s No I Don’t Want to Play Today: An African Story About Bullying imparts important lessons about bullying, pride, and forgiveness through a story about African animals with beautiful full-page drawings that keep readers fascinated throughout. While children are learning valuable lessons from the deeper subtext of the story, the characters, setting, dialogue, and delightful pictures entertain them, and keep them thoroughly engaged-without preaching to them.
Larry the Lion is described as “downright thoughtless of others,” criticizing the other animals for their differences, scaring them, and playing meanly, quite simply because he does not know how to interact with others. When the other animals finally become fed up with his taunts, they begin to hide from Larry. Patty the parrot begins crying that she does not want to play with Larry when he not only derides her, but orders her to play with him rather than asking, saying, “There you are you squawking, pea-brained bird, you.Come down this instant and play with me, you stupid bird.” This incident is a valuable lesson for children about manners, emphasizing the importance of asking for things nicely, whether it is to play or to share a toy.
When he sees the other animals laughing, playing, and running together, he becomes sad. His boastful pride as King of the Jungle makes him assume that because “I rule the jungle. Everybody has to like me.” When he starts crying that he is lonely, Jill the Jaguar shows compassion toward Larry, even though he has mistreated her, and she soon realizes that he is not mean at all, he just needs to be taught how to be a friend.
After telling Larry that his “high and mighty pride” and mean behavior makes him the “King of the Bullies,” and how inconsiderate he is toward others, he realizes that he has mistreated them. He was totally unaware of the consequences of his own actions or how he appeared to others.
Employing the important lesson of forgiveness, Jill calls the animals to a meeting and asks them to give Larry another chance. The animals express their individual concerns about his bullying, explaining that their differences are for a reason, making them special, and keeps the jungle from being a boring place; George the Giraffe needs his long legs to reach his food, and Kenny the Kangaroo cannot help his big feet, that is just how they are made. Larry is ashamed, apologizes, and is welcomed into the circle of friends.
Jones helps children to understand bullies, whose behavior and treatment of others often confuses and hurts them; in the end, they are often good people who do not know how to interact with others. The ultimate lesson for children is that it is important to show compassion for others, even those who have wronged you, try to understand people, show forgiveness, and treat them in the manner that they wish to be treated, even if they are not given the same respect. No I Don’t Want to Play Today: An African Story About Bullying is a must read for all children in this age of unprecedented bullying.
Find out more about Brenda Jones by visiting http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/NoIDontWantToPlayToday.html
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