A Friendship for Today by Patricia C. McKissack. Scholastic Press, 2007. Set in Missouri in 1954, twelve-year-old Rosemary will start sixth grade at an all white school. At her new school, Rosemary experiences prejudice, she realizes Grace Hamilton suffers it also as the other white kids call her "white trash."

Addy Learns a Lesson: A School Story by Connie Porter. Illustrated by Melodye Rosales.The American Girls Collection, Book Two. Scholastic, 1994. Addy and her mother are escaped slaves when they reach Philadelphia where Addy goes to school and discovers some unexpected prejudices from other students who had not been slaves.

Bullies Are a Pain in the Brain by Trevor Romain, Free Spirit Publishing, 1997. With practical guidelines and cartoon-like illustrations, this book is a necessity for students, teachers, and parents.

Death by Eggplant by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe. Roaring Brook Press, 2004. Bertie Hooks spends his day ducking his tormentor, Nick Dekker and planning new recipes, until his math teacher gives him an assignment in responsibility.

Do Over by Christine Hurley Deriso. Delacorte/Random House 2006. In the middle of her seventh grade year, Elsa’s mother dies suddenly of an aneurysm and Elsa and her dad move in with her grandmother.  Elsa has trouble adjusting, and her mother visits her late one night with a special gift to help her handle all the changes.

Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks by Gene Yang

. San Jose: Amazelnk, 2004. Upper classmen, Gordon Yamamoto and Devon, practice their own hazing rituals on some unlucky freshman and this year they choose, Miles. But after a data transfer with Miles, Gordon accidentally accesses Miles' memories and realizes the hazing isn't fun for him. This is a Graphic Novel.

Junebug and the Reverend by Alice Mead

. Random House, 1998. When his mother gets a new job as Resident Supervisor of a senior citizen apartment building, Junebug and his family move out of the projects. At a new school with new bullies, Junebug has to adjust.

Looking for X by Deborah Ellis. Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre, 1999. Eleven-year old Khyber is smart, adventurous, strong, and lives in a very poor neighborhood with her mom and two brothers, David and Daniel who both have autism.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. HarperCollins, 1990. Jeffrey Lionel Magee loses his parents when he is three years old and spends the rest of his life looking for a home.

Nothing Wrong with a Three-Legged Dog by Graham McNamee. Random House, 2000. Keath gets called Whitey because he is the only white kid in his fourth-grade class. He and his best friend Lynda, who is biracial, find the courage to stand up to the bullies when they have to protect Lynda’s three-legged beagle, named Leftovers..

Pinky and Rex and the Bully by James Howe. illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996. Pinky learns that even if pink is his a favorite color and his best friend is a girl named Rex, the school bully doesn’t have any right to pick on him.

Racing the Past by Sis Deans. Henry Holt, 2001. After his violent father dies, eleven-year-old Ricky gets into fights when bullies taunt him. He makes a deal with the principal: to avoid the bullies he will never share the same space with them, which means no recess or school bus. He walks, and then runs, to and from school.

Super Emma by Sally Warner, illustrated by Jamie Harper. New York: Puffin Books, 2006. As the second smallest third grader, Emma has learned to stand up for herself and her best friend, Ellray, the smallest third grader, but bully Jared Matthews can't resist calling them names. Good adult role models in Emma's mother and their teacher.

The Devil's Toenail by Sally Prue

. New York: Scholastic, 2004. Thirteen-year-old Steve Saunders looks for protection at his new school, but his new friends are really a gang led by Daniel, an intimidating bully.

The Double-Digit Club by Marion Dane Bauer. Holiday House, 2004. The summer after their fourth grade year, best friends, Sarah and Paige are the only two girls who have not been invited to join the Double Digit Club because their tenth birthday is yet to come.  They have vowed not to bend to the pressure, but one does.

The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss. Dial Books, 2000. Middle school cliques can be very cruel, and Koss shows one from the inside. Powerful Candace decides who is in and who is rejected according to her whims. Told in the voices of five members of the group in the beginning of the book, we see what happens when Candace tires of Maya.

The Gold-Threaded Dress by Carolyn Marsden. Candlewick Press, 2002. Although Oy is from Thailand, the students in her fourth-grade class call her Chinita, Spanish for little Chinese. What she wants most is to be accepted by Lilianda and invited to her club house, and if Oy brings her traditional Thai dress to school that might happen.

The Shorty Society by Sheri Cooper Sinykin, Penguin Books, 1994. Seventh grade brings many changes for Drew Minardi, and one is particularly hard to accept, his best friend Danny Greeson, is now five inches taller and spends most of his time bullying Drew about being short.

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake. Jump At The Sun/Hyperion, 2000. Because Maleeka has dark-black skin, the other kids torment her. Miss Saunders, the new English teacher, has a white mark over half her face. Mean-spirited Charlese taunts them both.

Vive La Paris by Esme Raji Codell. New York: Hyperion Books, 2006. Fifth grader Paris starts an Extreme Readers Club at school, takes piano from Mrs. Rosen, a Jewish Neighbor who survived the concentration camps of World War II, and has four older brothers, one of which gets bullied by a girl in Paris' class. This is a wonderful book and is very rich in characters and content.

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. Holt, 1999. Billed as the fattest boy in the world, Zackary Beaver is a side show in a trailer, but when Toby Wilson and his friend pay their money to stare, Toby notices Zackary’s sadness.

Back to Books by Grade Level list