REVIEW: Journal of a Schoolyard Bully by Farley Katz

At 26, Farley Katz is the youngest staff cartoonist for The New Yorker, where he’s published over fifty cartoons. Last year he wrote and edited the New Yorker’s comedy blog, The Cartoon Lounge. He’s written jokes and drawn cartoons for Mad Magazine, Saturday Night Live, and The Harvard Lampoon, where he was an editor in college. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles where he developed a comedy pilot for Endemol, and wrote and directed for Budweiser’s Bud T.V. His work has appeared on Eater.com and in Narrative magazine. He lives in New York City where he writes and draws the webcomic Kids Are Dumb (kidsaredumb.com).   

Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (September 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312681585
• ISBN-13: 978-0312681586

SOURCE:  PUBLISHER
MY THOUGHTS

LOVED IT

Farley Katz has written and illustrated a wonderful book about bullying from the bully’s point of view.  This one should provoke a lot of discussions for children, their parents and teachers.  I didn’t know that you could actually feel sorry for a bully, but Niko Kaylor with all his bravado and intelligence is actually a confused and angry boy.  Niko is forced to write a journal by his mother, his therapist and the school.  He illustrates it with all the hatred and anger he can muster and writes what he thinks the “unholy trinity” wants to read.  He still continues to bully and ignore the threats placed on him by the school.   Until he takes it all too far one day.  He is sent to a reform school and becomes the victim instead of victor.

I think most adults will know Katz’s work from Mad Magazine and a lot of the humor present there is carried over.  There are situations in the story that would never be allowed to occur at any school in the United States but are illustrated to the extreme to make his point.  Bullies have issues of their own and should be dealt with accordingly and quickly.  I really enjoyed this one and if you enjoyed Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you will like this opposing point of view. 

I am giving away my ARC here