"Stories that offer empowering and realistic ways to cope with and respond to bullying can activate a process of dynamic interaction between readers and literature that take students through the following stages:

• Identification: Students identify with characters and/or events in the story.
• Catharsis: Students become emotionally involved in the story and express their feelings in a safe and structured setting, through discussion, writing, artwork, or other activities.
• Insight: Students imagine possible solutions to the issues presented in the story, and become aware of ways that their own problems might be addressed or solved.

Early childhood education professor, Susan Miller, proposes the following guidelines for taking students through these stages and for developing constructive solutions to community problems.

• Identify: Determine and discuss the problem. It should be meaningful, interesting, and appropriate for children.
• Brainstorm: Encourage children to think about possible solutions. Listen to and respect all of their ideas. Keep a record of the solutions suggested in case the children want to try more than one.
• Select: Help children examine the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions and then choose one that seems workable.
• Explore and Implement: Let children gather the necessary materials and resources and then, if it is feasible, implement the solution they select.
• Evaluate: With the children, observe and discuss whether the solution to the problem was successful. If appropriate, help the children think of changes in the solution implemented, or encourage them to explore new solutions.

In order to engage students in this work, it will be necessary to set guidelines for safe and respectful communication, and to promote group norms that encourage students to behave toward one another with support and compassion. In such an atmosphere, students can be engaged through small and large group discussion, writing, role play, art work, and other activities to move from literal interpretations of books to analyses that have personal meaning and real-life applications. In this way literature can serve as a bridge that connects students to new ways of seeing themselves and others; to new coping mechanisms and social possibilities; and to their shared humanity with one another. As James Baldwin wrote, "It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."

1. The less preachy the better. Too often children feel they are being constantly lectured. Most children cope by tuning the adult out. (C'mon and admit it, we all know how these sessions go.)
2. So...the story has to be entertaining.
3. The character has to be someone that they can relate to and care about.
4. The subject matter must be a part of the child's life. Subjects include Anger Management, Dealing with Bullying, Motivation, etc.
5. A bonus will be for the child to feel and learn "empathy" for the characters.