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Bystander (2009)

by James Preller(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0312379064 (ISBN13: 9780312379063)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Feiwel & Friends

review 1: The name of this book had nothing to do with anything that happened in the book, in my opinion. Eric had just moved to Long Island and he is expecting himself to be a not so special guy, until griffin shows up. He leads Eric into thinking he's the good guy ; but he's not. Unfortunately throughout the entire book not many "bystander" expectations you would think. Eric in fact is the one that gets bullied. Griffin teases him and tauntsnhim until Eric can not handle the torture anymore. Nobody is there to help Eric nor to defend him. Until he meets Mary. Mary is a gentle kind girl that Eric meets the first day he moves to Long Island. At first he didn't have high hopes on them being friends but soon learns they are alike in many ways. This leads to them trying to under stand ... moregriffin, but they don't jsut stand there in terms of bystanding. This book was not much like what the reviews had stated. Unfortunately the book did not prove to me why Eric was a bystander but that bullying is a character trait in Griffin. As much as I wanted to say that this book made me want to read it over and over, it didn't.
review 2: I liked this book, and I think students will appreciate the story for its realism. Some are saying that Preller bailed out of the ending...my question is, how should it have ended? I feel that he left enough open for the reader to infer that the main character, Eric, possibly told an adult about what was happening. Yes, he did a foolish thing by breaking the law, but kids do stupid things all the time. What I liked was how Eric was inspired by the lesson his teacher gave regarding bullying and the Milgram experiment, yet his teacher never knew. This book was realistic, and that's what I liked about it. less

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