Bully Beans is a great book to have in preschool/elementary classrooms or to be used by counselors as a way to discuss bullying with children. The story includes methods as well as resources on how to handle situations if you are being bullied or even if you are witnessing it happen to someone else.

I thought it was interesting that the book depicted the bully as a petite blonde girl with pigtails. This portrayal is a good way to show children that bullies don’t always look the same, and that words can be just harmful to others as being physical. I also really appreciated that the book discussed what it means to be a bystander in situations like this, and that there can be strength in numbers in order to stand up to a bully.

Bully B.E.A.N.S. is a good book to start a discussion with your child or class about bullying. It offers advice on how to cope with bullying, specifically about how not to be a bystander when confronted with bullying behaviour. The tangible Bully Beans/Jelly Beans gives something to focus on and the acrostic for Beans - Bullies Everywhere Are Now Stopped, is helpful for younger children. It has experiences that children would really come across at school and speaks to them about finding ways to be strong and have courage. I also liked that empathy was dealt with. The "bully" had some issues and one of the other children took the time to find out what was wrong and tried to become her friend. The end pages have recommendations for students /children being bullied, those watching a friend being bullied and aren’t sure what they should do. There are also tips for kids to check themselves and make sure they aren’t being a bully in some way to others.

My daughter is a teacher, so when I saw this book I knew we had to read it. Bullying is such a problem that any story that sticks in kids minds and makes them think is worth having in the classroom library. We loved this book and it will become part of her classroom. Thank you.

A good book to start a discussion with your child or class about bullying. It offers advice on how to cope with bullying and how not to be a bystander when confronted with bullying behaviour.
I felt that the story behind why the child was bullying was a little too simplistic and stereotypical. Children bully for many reasons and the behaviour presents in many different ways. Cyberbullying is also a huge issue in today's society. I'm not sure the 'beans' would work for older primary school children but the younger ones might find it helpful. However, any strategy that could help a child build resilience and self-esteem should be considered. I found the story too long to read to a young class in one sitting but it is definitely a book to consider having in your class library and reading over a couple of days.

There should be more books like this one, I may not completely like the idea of using sweets to get courage to stand for yourself and others, but I like the acronym. In all seriousness, bullying is a real problem in schools and I appreciate the efforts to write about it in children-friendly language, giving tips how to stand against bullying and how to cooperate with other children.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Bully B.E.A.N.S is a sweet kid friendly book. It will help the children remember how they can stop bullying. A great way to keep the conversation going against bullying. It helps the kids know they can work out some problems by themselves, but they do need adults sometimes overall good book

Every school with students ranging from Kindergarten to six grade should have this book. I think that this book was straight on with the bullying that goes on in this world and it starts at younger ages now. Bullying has moved from words to pictures and cyber bullying. I highly recommend this book.

Bully Beans is a cute, child friendly book that uses a well-known candy to create an acrostic helping kids remember how they can stop bullying. Of course the jelly beans/ “Bully Beans” aren’t really magic, but serve as a tangible form of encouragement for a child just learning how to stand up to a bully for the first time. The word “Beans” helps them remember that when they pop a jelly bean in their mouth, they are giving themselves additional courage and suddenly “Bullies Everywhere Are Now Stopped”. Recommendations are given for students being bullied, those watching a friend being bullied and aren’t sure what they should do, and also some tips for kids to personally check themselves and make sure they aren’t being a bully in some way to others, overall, this serves as a valuable starter book for any young child dealing with bullying for the first time. I would recommend it for any Children’s Library.

I was provided a digital copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is an excellent tool in teaching young children about bullying. This book gets them to open up more easily. I will be buying this one for my preschool library.

This is a children's book that tries to teach young kids how to handle bullies. I like the imagery of the jelly beans helping to get rid of bullying, as well as the short acronym that comes with it. However, I do think that this book oversimplifies bullying with the happily-ever-after story. Oftentimes, bullies will target kids who don't fit in and/or belong to marginalized communities. Mean Maxine seemed to not discriminate and just bullied everyone and somehow got convinced to change her mind about bullying. She didn't really receive any consequence. Bullying isn't that simple, and sometimes kids don't need to befriend the bully; they need to stay away from them. I understand that it's important to be an upstander and not a bystander, but the responsibility to stand up to a bully shouldn't just be on his/her victims.

This is a great book to speak about bullies and what bullying means. It also goes into what to do if there is a bully at school. Julia Cook’s books are great for discussing different social situations and this one is no different.

4 Stars!

This is a great book for teaching kids about bullies and how to calmly react to their advances. I think the author did a great job with the story and will make it easier for any parent trying to help their child stand up to a bully. It had a cute twist with the jelly beans and added a fun aspect to a tough subject that seems to be a growing problem these days.

I think every parent, teacher, counselor, and human being needs this book. It is a great story that teachers a lesson and I think the tips at the end are perfect!

Julia Cook is an amazing writer. I read this book to my first grade group of students and they loved it. Pictures are amazing! Story line is the best. Students and I talked about bullies and the best way to deal with them. I think this book was perfect!

Every single elementary school and library needs to have multiple copies of this book. This is a fantastic book about strength in numbers to stand up to bullies. It is important for kids to understand that bullying behavior happens for different reasons, and sometimes having people stand up to them will help adjust that behavior. I appreciated that the book gave multiple ideas of ways to stand up to a bully and not all of those involved an adult. Many of the solutions are one that would help kids to learn problem-solving independently which is an important life skill.

As an elementary school educator I am always looking for tangible ways to help my students with bullying. This is a great book because it teaches compassion and yet still teaches kids step by step what to do about bullies. I cannot wait to share this with my students. Great resource!

I think this would be an excellent book for a school counselor to use when teaching kids about bullying. It shows the right way to deal with bullies in various settings.

This was a great book. Simple and easy to understand and give kids the tools and power to stand up to bullys. I know it isn’t as easy as eating jelly beans to find strength, but to even create a dialogue is enough. I think the Bully’s Everywhere Are Now Stopped was a great message.

The tools at the back are also great to learn how to spot and deal with bullies as well as recognize if you yourself are one.

thank you to netgalley for my digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book has a great message, I loved that the little girl noticed the reason Maxine was so mean had to do with her home life. I liked that the school kids were able to stand up to Maxine, the bully. I loved the idea of bully beans to help them stand up to the bully. The only thing I struggled with was that I was so shy as a kid, standing up like they do would have felt overwhelming. This is not a problem with the book I can just see that with certain students.

Bully B.E.A.N.S. tackles the subject of bullying for children. It has experiences that children would really come across at school and speaks to them about finding ways to be strong and have courage. The book also talks about empathy for other people, which I felt was so important in this book. It is something we are currently talking about with our children and this book was a nice way to add to that topic. The end of the book even has some information about handling children that bully, which I loved. Overall, this was a good book, and I would recommend for any children in pre-k through 3rd grade.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, National Center of Youth Issues for providing this book to me in exchange for my honest opinion.