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The Revealers

Doug Wilhelm (Goodreads Author)

3.42 · Rating details · 1,048 ratings · 165 reviews

Throwing light on a dark problem
Parkland Middle School is a place the students call Darkland, because no one in it does much to stop the daily harassment of kids by other kids. Three bullied seventh graders use their smarts to get the better of their tormentors by starting an unofficial e-mail forum at school in which they publicize their experiences. Unexpectedly, lots o ...more

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Paperback, 224 pages

Published April 1st 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux (first published 2003)

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Average rating 3.42 ·

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· 1,048 ratings · 165 reviews

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May 07, 2008 Amber rated it really liked it

Do you remember being in the seventh grade? I remember it as being the most difficult year, socially, with its only rival being the eighth grade. Some of the kids were horrible to each other, and of course this is at the most impressionable age where you remember everything that was said for the rest of your life. Me, I was happy to have my one true friend, and remain invisible the rest of the time.

The Revealers is a powerful story about three seventh-graders who were tired of being picked on an ...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Anna-Simone rated it it was amazing

The Revealers is a about three stdents, Russell, Elliot, and Catalina, at Parkland Middle School who want to reveal all the bullying tha is happening to them and in thier school. The three students end up making a blog ware evrybody in the school can put up their stories and experiences around bullying. At the end they made a science fair project around their blog and the judges really enjoyed it. I would reccomend this book to people or students because it really brings out the backstage of thi ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 Lori Anderson rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-zack

This is required summer reading for Zack, so I read it, too. An interesting take on bullying. I could see, though, how The Bully Lab could quickly become a slippery slope. Telling your story publicly can make a profound difference in how people act and react to each other. However, it can also be a way for people to bully each other further under the guise of being a victim. There are lots of shades of grey.

I write a blog, and occasionally get (usually anonymous) comments calling me out for som This is required summer reading for Zack, so I read it, too. An interesting take on bullying. I could see, though, how The Bully Lab could quickly become a slippery slope. Telling your story publicly can make a profound difference in how people act and react to each other. However, it can also be a way for people to bully each other further under the guise of being a victim. There are lots of shades of grey.

I write a blog, and occasionally get (usually anonymous) comments calling me out for something. On the occasions when I've allowed the comment to be published, or tried to discuss it on the blog or social media, the backlash was awful. Even if the anonymous bully was completely off mark, inevitably I would be called out for being negative by even discussing what had been written to me. After a time, I became afraid to say ANYTHING that wasn't unicorns and glitter.

I do believe in having the chance to question why someone acts a certain way towards you or someone else. You just have to be prepared for the answer, because sometimes we DO bring the junk down on ourselves by how WE are acting. I wish people would feel freer to have honest discourse without someone flying off the handle. It's not easy seeing both sides sometimes. It's even harder to decide if you need to change a behavior, WANT to change a behavior, or feel "this is me, my personality". I would rather lose a "friend" than be lied to, and I wish bullies would take their anger/disgust/annoyance and turn it into building more meaningful relationships with their friends. Why waste time trying to humiliate me when you're not even interested in finding out who I really am, and put that energy into something you enjoy and into the friends you like.

Everyone could do with more compassion. That's a lot to ask of a middle schooler, and this book's premise helps people see both sides. Rarely is a bully a truly evil person. Too often, people don't see all aspects of a person or stop to think before saying or doing something cutting.

And unfortunately, bullying happens way past middle school. I'm hopeful that kids who read books like this one will think twice, and let the book's lessons help shape them as adults. ...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Deepa rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: any middle schooler.

Recommended to Deepa by: no one.

I found this book very inspiring. I think it has a cool perspective and "voice" on bullying. My favorite part was seeing how the characters change over the course of the book. I also enjoyed the ending and seeing how the three main characters take the bullying at their school and morph it into something that is both informative and raises awareness. A great read and I would recommend it to any middle schooler. ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Lammart Poels rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 05, 2018 Avery rated it it was ok

Shelves: boring-school-books

DONT WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS DUMB BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!unless you really,really,really,really,really,really x 10000000000000000 want to read it

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Aug 07, 2015 Jordan rated it liked it

There's a lot to love about this book. A Truncated Teacher Checklist:
1. Addresses bullying.
2. Emphasizes the power of collective action.
3. Emphasizes nonviolence.
4. Questions adult logic and power.
5. Encourages critical thinking and creativity, especially with technology.

All of these are great talking points, and make me excited to start the year with this text. I really, really love the structure of Wilhelm's power dynamics; they feel like a real school, in a real place, with real students ...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Rae rated it it was ok

Shelves: good-for-boys, ya-realistic

This book had a tough start and I think it might lose a lot of middle schoolers just because it's so hard to get into initially. The author's writing comes across almost as stream of consciousness at some points. There were several run on sentences I had to read, re-read, and then look at one last time before I figured out what he was saying. I don't think the average middle schooler is going to be willing to put that kind of effort into a book two pages in.

Once you get into the book it really i ...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Erin rated it really liked it

Although I'm not a huge fan of the illustration on the cover, I'm a big fan of the book. Three middle school students have been bullied for quite a while. Elliot is smaller and very smart, picked on by many of his schoolmates. Russell has a run-in with the rough, tough school bully, who now frequently beats Russell up. Catalina is the new girl in school, having moved from the Philippines, and the most popular girl in school has made her a target. When these three students come together, they dec ...more

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Dec 29, 2007 Brandy rated it liked it

Shelves: friendship, teen, for-work, realistic, library, middle-grade, bullies, 2007reads

Three kids who get picked on a lot team up and fight back against bullies, and discover that the pen is truly mightier than the sword. It verges on preachy, and the initial reaction to the first letter (which was a lengthy "I'm a person too!"; reaction was everyone being nicer to her and nobody making fun of it) was pretty unrealistic.

This is a Book About Bullying, and not a story in its own right. It's sure to appear on countless summer reading lists, but the truth is that it's just not that g ...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Corrie rated it it was ok

I read this book to see if it would work to help facilitate discussion on cyberbullying, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. A group of kids use what is essentially a "Moodle" or "Blackboard" space to send all school emails revealing bullying incidents anonymously. The students are trying to get back at the bullies using the computer as a medium for disclosing their activities. While it could facilitate the discussion of the power the internet has given us to self-publish for all the wo ...more

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Sep 13, 2015 Robert rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books

This was an easy read and a middle school boy being bullied and how he struggles each day with trying to avoid the bully. This would be a great book for a teacher to read to a class in the beginning of year. After reading the book I met the author and he shared with the audience that the book was about his struggles in middle school and how he was bullied forty years ago.

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Aug 15, 2008 Chanarah rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone who is entering middle school

Recommended to Chanarah by: summer read for school

This book is really good. At first it seemed kind of boring, but the suspense kept growing and growing. i would suggest that everyone who is entering middle school should read this book. It brought me back to some of my expirences of bullying when i was in 6th grade

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Sep 28, 2010 Annarenee rated it really liked it

The book is about a boy named Russle, another boy named Elliot who only thinks about dinosaurs, and a girl named Catalina. they are all having problems with bullying by different people. They group up and be like "scientist" and try to figure out how to make it stop. ...more

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Jul 16, 2017 Lesley rated it really liked it

It is imperative that teachers and students discuss bullying more in schools, especially in the middle grades where research shows that the most bullying takes place. And not only in the Friday Advisement class meetings, but more effectively though novels and memoirs.

The Revealers would be a great choice for a middle school whole-class read or included with 4-5 other novels that address bullying for students to read and discuss in book clubs, comparing issues raised with books being read by all It is imperative that teachers and students discuss bullying more in schools, especially in the middle grades where research shows that the most bullying takes place. And not only in the Friday Advisement class meetings, but more effectively though novels and memoirs.

The Revealers would be a great choice for a middle school whole-class read or included with 4-5 other novels that address bullying for students to read and discuss in book clubs, comparing issues raised with books being read by all the book clubs. There are many advantages to reading this novel. Bullying is the entire focus of the novel—not just a side issue. The story emphasizes the efficacy of cooperative action when three students who are bullied collaborate on facing bullying with nonviolent action, scientifically studying why students bully. They share, and others begin sharing, their stories as victims and bullies to be posted on school-wide media.

The book highlights creative solutions to problems, using the scientific method, and the three students’ research—in cooperation with many members of the student body, including the school’s most feared bully—becomes a science fair exhibit which brings the problem to the notice of the principal and a school board member. The novel highlights the problem of administrative denial and even acceptance, which, unfortunately, is too realistic.

My one concern is that there is one page containing a few minor profanities (i.e., damn). While it may be realistic for that character, I found it unnecessary and even a jolt as it didn’t fit in with the dialogue in the novel, even the harsh words of bullies. Many teachers, especially of young adolescents, face parental concerns with required readings. As a book club choice, this novel may be able to be included with an explanatory note to parents. We can protest that adolescents and heard and used these words, but some parents see this as teacher approval. I do wish authors would take into consideration that “realistic” is not always “necessary.” However, that issue does not override my recommendation of this novel for middle-grade reading and discussion.

As I wrote in No More “Us” and “Them”: Classroom Lessons & Activities to Promote Peer Respect (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), “There are many ways for teachers to use literature in the classroom to facilitate building respect both for other students and for other peoples and to help their students acquire self-respect. Stories give readers different perspectives and can place them in positions and situations in which they have never been; stories let the readers take part in experiences outside their realms.”
...more

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Oct 08, 2017 Cassidy Hluchan rated it liked it

The book "The Revealers" by Doug Wilhelm taught me that even though the odds are against you, you can still turn those odds around and change everything for the better. I will be honest; this book was not my favorite. I knew from the beginning the major conflict was that kids were getting bullied, but I didn't know how they were going to resolve the conflict until much later in the book. This problem made it very hard to keep reading. I also didn't like how the book ended. I will not spoil it, ...more

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Mar 16, 2018 Dorothy Mitchell rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-kids, contemporary-ya, intriguing

I read this book in 5th grade, before middle school. I was homeschooled so I never went to public middle school myself, but I never forgot the lessons I learned from this book. It's not a perfect book, and I don't necessarily agree with all of the characters' actions or their proposed solution in real life, but in the end they were moral, upstanding, and courageous. This is a book that will make you think about the bullying subject from many different angles and it's absolutely worth discussing, ...more

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Dec 09, 2020 Gabriel rated it really liked it

I am in 7th grade, and I had to read it for school. I did not really enjoy the book because it is about 3 7th-graders getting bullied and then their journey to end bullying at their school. To me, it seemed like it was probably a little bit more geared toward smaller kids, based on the topic and the mood set by the author, but the language used in the text seemed like it would be a little bit difficult for young children to read. It was a little bit hard to read and overall just did not interest ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Danielle Routh rated it it was amazing

The Revealers is a fantastic look at the many sides of bullying, the good intentions of many adults that fail to affect anything, and how middle schoolers actually act. Seriously, Russell is the perfect representation of a seventh-grade boy, and even if his cluelessness is sometimes frustrating to read, it's spot on, especially regarding Catalina and the ways in which girls bully each other. The ending is a bit too tidy for my liking, but the characterization--of both the students and the adults ...more

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Nov 28, 2020 Alex Templeton rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-mg

Not something I would have picked up necessarily on my own, but it was my students' summer read. Definitely a very interesting consideration of the whole victim/bystander/bully relationship, and the power bystanders and victims can have by speaking up. (In the book, three outcast kids use the school's internal intranet to expose bullying that everyone - including adults - are aware of but assume is just part of the way things are). A worthy read for that reason. I should say that at this point i ...more

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Dec 05, 2018 Amantha rated it really liked it

I read this along with my students in 7th grade, and it's a fine book. The class has been reading it very slowly (we started in August), so that may have impacted my rating in the end. The class is actually still reading, but I got impatient and finished it. I think this is a great book for middle schoolers to read. ...more

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Apr 06, 2020 Joy Slykhuis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: junior-fiction, bullying, boy-book

Absolutely outstanding! I agree with the blurb on the cover, "a must-read for middle (and high) schoolers." The same premise as a million other books... 3 kids who are bullied band together to outsmart the bullies. But so well done. These three kids are great, especially Russell, the story teller, who relates the great story of what happened in grade 7. I loved it!! ...more

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Mar 24, 2017 Ryo rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 07, 2019 EmmaH rated it did not like it

Unrealistic and cheesy- the author clearly doesn't remember what being a middle schooler feels like. I know the book is old, but I sill should've been able to relate to at least some part of this book. ...more

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Mar 01, 2018 Kai Tschang rated it did not like it

Just boring. I just want to go to bed. I wish the beginning was much better.

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Oct 10, 2018 Olivia rated it did not like it

I did not like it at all! Very boring and really not good! Don't wast your time!! worst book ever! ...more

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Nov 10, 2018 Carson hall rated it it was ok

Shelves: average

Solid 2 1/2 stars.

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Jan 09, 2020 Arris 7/8Y rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2019-2020

Bullies can ruin peoples lives, but what does it take to defy one? This story explains the story of multiple poeple being bullied... and fighting against it.

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Feb 07, 2017 Gaspar rated it it was amazing

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Mar 24, 2017 Alihan Alihan added it

Awesome book, full of life lessons and sad moments.

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About Doug Wilhelm

Doug Wilhelm

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Doug Wilhelm is the author of 17 books for young readers, including Street of Storytellers, a multi-award winning novel for YA and adult readers:

• Gold medal, YA fiction, 2020 Independent Press Awards
• Silver medal, teen fiction, 2020 Benjamin Franklin Awards
• Winner, young adult books, 2019 Independent Publishers of New England Book Awards
• Kirkus Reviews Indie Editors Choice

Doug's previous books ...more