Overview
This easy-to-read story about peer pressure by comedian and storyteller Bill Cosby is now a Scholastic Reader!Michael Reilly has introduced a new game to Little Bill and his friends. You get twelve chances to say something mean to another kid--and whoever comes up with the biggest insult is the winner.
Insults start flying: "Jose hops with the frogs in science lab!" "Andrew eats frogs for dinner!" "Little Bill shoots baskets like a girl!"
Little Bill tries to think of really mean things to say in retaliation. But Dad teaches him a strategy that enables Little Bill to save face while remaining the nice kid that he really is!
When a new boy in his second grade class tries to get the other students to play a game that involves saying the meanest things possible to one another, Little Bill shows him a better way to make friends.
Synopsis
Michael Reilly has introduced a new game to Little Bill and his friends. You get twelve chances to say something mean to another kid--and whoever comes up with the biggest insult is the winner. Insults start flying: "Jose hops with the frogs in science lab!" "Andrew eats frogs for dinner!" "Little Bill shoots baskets like a girl!"Little Bill tries to think of really mean things to say in retaliation. But Dad teaches him a strategy that enables Little Bill to save face while remaining the nice kid that he really is!
Children's Literature
Little Bill is confronted by a new boy at school with the intention of being mean under the guise of a name calling game. Bill is saved by the recess bell and has the evening to prepare his mean things to say. With some strategy from Dad, Bill turns the table on the verbal bully with embarrassing either party. The tactic presented may not always be successful but it does show young readers that there are ways to interact with other children without losing face or resorting to violence. It is part of the "Little Bill" series.
Editorials
Children's Literature -
Little Bill is confronted by a new boy at school with the intention of being mean under the guise of a name calling game. Bill is saved by the recess bell and has the evening to prepare his mean things to say. With some strategy from Dad, Bill turns the table on the verbal bully with embarrassing either party. The tactic presented may not always be successful but it does show young readers that there are ways to interact with other children without losing face or resorting to violence. It is part of the "Little Bill" series.Children's Literature
Little Bill is great. In this installment of Cosby's series, it is a normal day for Little Bill except there is a new kid, Michael. "It didn't take him long to start trouble—just until recess." Michael wants to play a new kind of game, not basketball like all the other kids want. No, he wants to start a game called "Playing the Dozens" where each person gets a chance to say twelve mean things, and the one who says the meanest thing wins. Many of us have played some form of this game without thinking about the consequences. Little Bill learns that saying mean things makes him feel mean, and hearing mean things makes him mad. When he is still mad at home, his family helps out. His father remembers playing this game as a kid too. The perfect response, Little Bill learns, is not to keep adding insults, but to let them go—asking "so?" By using his new strategy, Little Bill deflects Michael's game of insults and gets back to basketball. And he even invites Michael to play. Cosby does this without being sickly sweet or cute. There are activities at the end of the book to increase reading speed and fluency. 2003 (orig. 1997), Scholastic, Ages 4 to 8.—Amy S. Hansen