Bully to Buddy! The Pout-Pout Fish and the Bully-Bully Shark by Deborah Diesen

Deep in the ocean
On a warm summer day,
Bubbled lots of lovely laughter
And sounds of happy play.

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood for Mr. Fish & Friends. Even Mr. Fish's pouty mouth is all smiles, and the small fry fish and their fellow crustaceans frolic in the waters of Tommy Tickle Park. In oceanic terms, all's well in the sea's swells.

But then a shadow literally passes over this perfect pelagic scene. It's a.... SHARK!

The shark showed his teeth,
And growled as he swam.
"Move aside, micro-fishes!
It's my turn! SCRAM!"

The small denizens of the deep dive down to the bottom. Flounder flaps until he is hidden in the sand. The rest swim for cover. No one wants to make trouble taking on Snaggletooth the Shark. Even Pout-Pout Mr. Fish suddenly feels puny.

After a gnarly pass over Tommy Tickle Park, the shark swims on, and the tiny small fry and spineless crustaceans begin to venture out again and start to play. But the little one ones scatter again when the shark glides by and taunts them:

"Fear the fin!"

But the third time Snagglepuss makes a pass, Mr. Fish  begins to feel his inner superhero beginning to blossom.  He rallies his comrades and faces the big fish down:

"Mr. Shark," said Mr. Fish,
"You have broken up our fun.
Bully isn't who you are,
But it is what you've DONE!"

Boys and girls, don't try this with a real shark at your beach, but Mr. Fish has a good point about facing up. If you can't overpower a bully, maybe you can co-opt him by appealing to his better self and fitting in with the group, and in Deborah Diesen's The Pout-Pout Fish and the Bully-Bully Shark (A Pout-Pout Fish Adventure) (Farrar, Strous and Giroux, 2017) shows her hero Pout-Pout Fish converting the shark to one of the gang, one who even follows the rules: 1) BE KIND! 2) BE FAIR! 3) IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG, SPEAK UP! As always, Mr. Fish learns and returns a new lesson, but it is artist Dan Hanna's detailed and delicate deep-sea illustrations that are the seaside center of attention in this latest under-the-sea adventure.

Pair this one for preschoolers with Anna Dewdney's delightful take on taking on bullies and bullying in her Llama Llama and the Bully Goat. (Read my review here.)

Expectations: Trouble Next Door (The Carver Chronicles 4) by Karen English

"So, what's the news?" Carlos asks as the boys make their way to the handball courts.

"It's bad," Calvin says. "The Hendersons moved. Harper Hall now lives next door to me."

Everyone's mouth drops open. "No way," Gavin says. "You're joking, right?"

"Remember the time he spray-painted bad words on the back of the auditorium?" Carlos asks. "I heard he beat up this seventh-grader because the guy looked at him funny," Gavin adds.

Calvin nods miserably. "I gotta stay out of his way."

Calvin resorts to ducking down in Dad's car on the way to school and sneaking out over the backyard fence to meet his friends, hoping to avoid Harper's eyes. Harper is the unanimous choice for biggest bully and troublemaker at Carver Elementary.

Calvin's dad says that the way he behaves, Harper must be troubled. Calvin thinks he is just plain trouble.

But Calvin has something else on his mind. The school science fair looms near and he's got to get to work on a decent project. And when he sees some optical illusions on the back of a magazine, it takes him a while to see all the images there, and he wonders what he can do with that. It's interesting, but for a science experiment,
he has to have a hypothesis and a prediction.

"I predict," he tells his dad, "that boys can see an optical illusion faster than girls!" My project is going to be the best, Calvin thinks. It's going to be awesome.

Then Dad surprises Calvin by inviting Harper to go to the movies with them on Saturday. Dad's hypothesis is that Harper has to live with a foster parent and maybe that is why Harper is always mean and mad at everyone. He needs a man to pay attention to him, his father says. Calvin is not convinced that Dad's hypothesis is accurate, but one thing is certain:

His cover is about to be blown!

But Calvin is surprised to learn that Harper's favorite thing is gardening and that his mother is homeless, living in a shed and working at the community garden. And Calvin's hypothesis about Harper being naturally mean has to be recalculated when he sees Harper's science fair project to test whether plants grow faster with music. Harper is not living up to Calvin's hypothesis that he is nothing but trouble.

And then, when Calvin tests the time it takes ten boys and ten girls to decipher the optical illusions, the girls win, going away. The numbers don't lie.

Predicting human behavior is complicated, as Calvin figures out as he finds himself happily heading out to shoot lay-ups with his new neighbor, in Karen English's fourth book in series, Trouble Next Door: The Carver Chronicles, Book Four (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016). With the help of artist Laura Freeman's expressive drawings, Karen English's latest is a sensitive story about testing a hypothesis before coming to a conclusion. Who knew the girls could outdo boys so easily? Who knew that Harper's homeless mother was pretty and nice and working hard at having him come to live with her? English's short chapter books are well tuned to late primary readers, with a widening view of the world around them and a sweet sensitivity to her diverse third grade characters.

Other books in the Carver Chronicles include Dog Days: The Carver Chronicles, Book One, Skateboard Party: The Carver Chronicles, Book Two, and Don't Feed the Geckos!: The Carver Chronicles, Book 3 (read reviews here).

Back to School: Ginny Louise and the School Showdown by Tammi Sauer

Ginny Louise may be a little hedgehog, but her personality is not the least bit prickly. Her credo for troublemakers is simple.

Kill 'em with kindness!

But school brings Ginny Lou a challenge to her modus operandi.

THE TRUMAN ELEMENTARY TROUBLEMAKERS WERE A BAD BUNCH.

ESPECIALLY THESE THREE--CAP'N CATASTROPHE, DESTRUCTO DUDE, AND MAKE-MY-DAY MAY.

The terrible trio are a royal pain to their teachers. They advocate ignoring homework, coming to school late, sailing paper airplanes, and shooting spitballs, and they just keep getting worse.

Ginny Louise tries the Sunny Side of the Street tactic:

"HI, EVERYBODY! MY NAME IS GINNY LOU!"

MAKE-MY-DAY MAY HAD ONLY ONE THING TO SAY."YOU'RE GONNA PAY!"

But Ginny Louise assumes the best:

"I'D LOVE TO STAY! THANKS, NEW BEST FRIEND!"

Make-My-Day May is rendered speechless by Ginny Lou's friendly response. So the other two bullies take a turn trying to insult Ginny. Destructo Dude declares her reply is as appealing as cooties on a cape.

"YOUR SWEETNESS MAKE ME SICK!" GRUMPS CAP'N CATASTROPHE.

But Ginny Louise persists in her Pollyanna practices, seemingly "misunderstanding" every threat. At last Make-My-Day May draws her cap gun and calls for a showdown. Ginny Lou pulls out a violin and stomps out the downbeat to a hoedown. Even the Truman Troublemakers are soon sashaying with their classmates.

Killing 'em with kindness works in Tammi Sauer's latest, Ginny Louise and the School Showdown (Hyperion Books, 2015). Perhaps the adage "A soft answer turns away wrath," can sometimes work, especially if the outlaws feel like outcasts. Veteran artist Lynn Munsinger, a master of portraying the emotions of young anthropomorphized animals, comes up with some delightful illustrations which slyly poke great fun at the blustering bullies, pretty much as she did in her Caldecott-winning Hooway for Wodney Wat. Read these two together for some prescriptions for reforming primary grade bullies.