Taking the Bully by the Horns by Kathy Noll is the children's version of Nasty People by Dr. Jay Carter. This short (53 pages), easy-to-read paperback is intended to be read by your elementary through middle school students. Noll describes bullies, their techniques and their victims. Then she addresses both bullies and victims directly in a comfortable first person style, describing how to break the cycle of bully and victim.

Consider keeping this book as an available resource for suggested reading when a situation arises with one of your students. Read in its entirety, the book gets repetitive. But pointing a student to one of the five chapters for a quick read, followed by a discussion with you or a counselor, then more reading, it becomes a workbook to be used over an extended period of time.

Bullying doesn't develop overnight, and is a problem which can't be solved with one reading of a self-help book. As we saw in Columbine High School, intimidation can have disasterous results, and the response has to begin somewhere. Noll's book can be a helpful resource when combined with your own plan for dealing with low self-esteem in your classroom.

Taking the Bully by the Horns, Kathy Noll with Dr. Jay Carter, Unicorn Press, ISBN 0-937004-11-1, available through Kathy Noll's website.