In this “all-ages” picture book, W. Nikola-Lisa addresses the nagging social issue of verbal bullying. Artfully designed in black-and-white using abstracted portions of enlarged letterforms, Please Don’t Say An X Word offers a jumping off point for that all-important discussion about bullying with students, co-workers, and/or family members. But wait, just what is an x word? In math “x” stands for a missing quantity, as in the equation 2(x) = 4, where x equals 2. And so it is in this book where “x words” stand for all the “bad… angry… hurtful… words” we use to demean, denigrate, or bully someone else. Using just the right amount of humor and thoughtfulness, W. Nikola-Lisa, author of the award-winning Bein’ With You This Way, urges us to reflect on how we treat each other, especially through hurtful verbal assaults, while, at the same time, encouraging us to explore the immense richness and beauty of language.