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When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times
Self-Care for Kids! This is not your usual kid's book! This book is a call to BE, to step forward and LOVE yourself, LOVE your community, know your history and your powerful place in it and strengthen your own creative power! This book is a tool to use. I created it because I know you are an important part of our world and your strength matters.
Bullying is real, but we can change the story by changing the focus. Begin with yourself. Begin the journey of art activist. You are the artist. You are the storyteller. Change yourself. Change the world!
Playful ink and watercolor illustrations support a powerful journey that touches on bullying in the founding history of the US, how that history may still be impacting kids and families today, and ways to use creativity and self respect in the face of negative messages for all marginalized communities. The first part of the book briefly acknowledges the United States' past and present and shows some basic forms of activism that kids engage in. The next part talks about walking away from a bully or de-escalation and focusing on how to take care of yourself and community. Finally practical ways creativity and portraiture can be used to support self respect and spread respect in community are explored. Communities reflected include Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Chicanx, LGBTQ Americans, disabled Americans, Americans who identify as women and girls, Muslim and Sikh Americans and Asian Americans. Story text is in English and Spanish. The back includes related resources and referrals.
Award-winning children's book artist and author Maya Gonzalez draws from 20 years working with kids using her Claiming Face curriculum, to provide a place for kids to land during difficult times and counteract the impact of oppression with truth, expression and personal creative power.
Bullying is real, but we can change the story by changing the focus. Begin with yourself. Begin the journey of art activist. You are the artist. You are the storyteller. Change yourself. Change the world!
Playful ink and watercolor illustrations support a powerful journey that touches on bullying in the founding history of the US, how that history may still be impacting kids and families today, and ways to use creativity and self respect in the face of negative messages for all marginalized communities. The first part of the book briefly acknowledges the United States' past and present and shows some basic forms of activism that kids engage in. The next part talks about walking away from a bully or de-escalation and focusing on how to take care of yourself and community. Finally practical ways creativity and portraiture can be used to support self respect and spread respect in community are explored. Communities reflected include Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Chicanx, LGBTQ Americans, disabled Americans, Americans who identify as women and girls, Muslim and Sikh Americans and Asian Americans. Story text is in English and Spanish. The back includes related resources and referrals.
Award-winning children's book artist and author Maya Gonzalez draws from 20 years working with kids using her Claiming Face curriculum, to provide a place for kids to land during difficult times and counteract the impact of oppression with truth, expression and personal creative power.
52 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 30, 2020
I have to admit, when I first heard of this book I was expecting a thinly veiled exposé on the vile words that spew forth on a daily basis from the angry orange painted man living in the White House from 2017 to 2020 (and hopefully no longer than that). But aside from the title and a couple of similar vague references in the text, this picture book stays clear of most of the easy political targets that it could have pounced upon. Instead the author focuses on the “bullying” behavior upon which the United States was built, and the shameful hypocrisy that denying such facts results. The author illuminates, in small words that children can understand, how painful and hurtful it is to individuals when a society ignores the pain and hurt of some of its citizens. This is an extremely difficult subject and the author handles it with dignity and strength, without trivializing the hurt and pain.
October 20, 2018
https://raisethemrighteous.com/2018/0...
Maya Gonzalez’s necessary children’s picture book, When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity in Oppressive Times (2017), sends a positive message to children about the power of creativity, awareness, self-care, and community engagement. When a Bully is President requires reflection and discussion, preferably with a knowledgeable person who can help children work through complex connections between the “big” and “small,” past and present, forms of bullying Gonzalez describes.
The child-like drawings Gonzalez uses to complement her text are anything but naïve. They colorfully and accessibly connect present political conditions under Trump to the US’s history of bullying, including abusing power to shore up strength through colonization, slavery, and land grabs.
In her description of the bullying experienced by American Indians, Gonzalez illustrates colonization through a line drawing of a ship on top of a colorful sea full of life. On the facing page, mountains and watery waves frame a group of American Indians in traditional attire. Both images are framed as if they are pictures mounted on a wall. Historical atrocities are subtly connected to present day ones through the inclusion of an American Indian in a “Standing Rock” t-shirt looking at the image of her ancestors.
Gonzalez also connects the past to the present in her discussion of African Americans. She notes that 12 out of 18 US presidents owned African people and connects this to the gross disregard of black lives in instances of police brutality occurring today. She does this by depicting an African American in a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt.
Gonzalez’s illustrations are beautiful and beautifully inclusive. For instance, in what I will refer to as a short vignette, “Doing keeps us strong,” Gonzalez depicts small and large groups of children identifying social issues, creating signs to protest injustice, and actively participating in protests. The cast of characters she illustrates include younger and older people, a girl wearing a hijab, and someone in a wheelchair. In this vignette, Gonzalez identifies a range of social justice issues that can prompt valuable discussion: immigrants’ rights, indigenous rights, disability rights, and economic justice are among them. There are many such vignettes that make it easy to move around the text in a non-linear way.
Gonzalez also includes great activities to encourage self-reflection through drawing and writing. My favorite is her “Be Your Own Witness” activity. Gonzalez prompts children to identify words and names bullies have used to hurt them, narrate their reaction, and describe themselves positively. Doing this helps bullied children reclaim the narrative and tell their own story. Gonzalez has other free resources on her amazing website.
In addition to great activity sheets, there’s a useful glossary and list of resources in the back of the book to help facilitate informed discussion about the issues presented.
Politics affects the lives of children. I am not sure why this needs to be written, but I am sure it does. No child gets a childhood free from privilege and power. The idea that childhood is a space of innocence and that good adults protect children does not help them become intelligent justice-minded community members. Gonzalez provides tons of resources to help us do good by our kids.
I highly recommend When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times for classroom use as well as personal libraries. It is appropriate for children five and up. Even more, because of the activities and ideas expressed, I can see pre-teens enjoying this in their book collection. This is the best, most thorough, conversation starter about experiences of discrimination I have come across.
Maya Gonzalez’s necessary children’s picture book, When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity in Oppressive Times (2017), sends a positive message to children about the power of creativity, awareness, self-care, and community engagement. When a Bully is President requires reflection and discussion, preferably with a knowledgeable person who can help children work through complex connections between the “big” and “small,” past and present, forms of bullying Gonzalez describes.
The child-like drawings Gonzalez uses to complement her text are anything but naïve. They colorfully and accessibly connect present political conditions under Trump to the US’s history of bullying, including abusing power to shore up strength through colonization, slavery, and land grabs.
In her description of the bullying experienced by American Indians, Gonzalez illustrates colonization through a line drawing of a ship on top of a colorful sea full of life. On the facing page, mountains and watery waves frame a group of American Indians in traditional attire. Both images are framed as if they are pictures mounted on a wall. Historical atrocities are subtly connected to present day ones through the inclusion of an American Indian in a “Standing Rock” t-shirt looking at the image of her ancestors.
Gonzalez also connects the past to the present in her discussion of African Americans. She notes that 12 out of 18 US presidents owned African people and connects this to the gross disregard of black lives in instances of police brutality occurring today. She does this by depicting an African American in a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt.
Gonzalez’s illustrations are beautiful and beautifully inclusive. For instance, in what I will refer to as a short vignette, “Doing keeps us strong,” Gonzalez depicts small and large groups of children identifying social issues, creating signs to protest injustice, and actively participating in protests. The cast of characters she illustrates include younger and older people, a girl wearing a hijab, and someone in a wheelchair. In this vignette, Gonzalez identifies a range of social justice issues that can prompt valuable discussion: immigrants’ rights, indigenous rights, disability rights, and economic justice are among them. There are many such vignettes that make it easy to move around the text in a non-linear way.
Gonzalez also includes great activities to encourage self-reflection through drawing and writing. My favorite is her “Be Your Own Witness” activity. Gonzalez prompts children to identify words and names bullies have used to hurt them, narrate their reaction, and describe themselves positively. Doing this helps bullied children reclaim the narrative and tell their own story. Gonzalez has other free resources on her amazing website.
In addition to great activity sheets, there’s a useful glossary and list of resources in the back of the book to help facilitate informed discussion about the issues presented.
Politics affects the lives of children. I am not sure why this needs to be written, but I am sure it does. No child gets a childhood free from privilege and power. The idea that childhood is a space of innocence and that good adults protect children does not help them become intelligent justice-minded community members. Gonzalez provides tons of resources to help us do good by our kids.
I highly recommend When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times for classroom use as well as personal libraries. It is appropriate for children five and up. Even more, because of the activities and ideas expressed, I can see pre-teens enjoying this in their book collection. This is the best, most thorough, conversation starter about experiences of discrimination I have come across.
October 17, 2017
A teacher had requested this title at the store and I was intrigued so I had to read it. An inspiring and empowering guide to what kids can do when confronted with bullying with a focus on self-love and working together. Written and published within four months of the last presidential election, I love that the author/illustrator felt and met the need to create this book. She invites readers to use their voices to share their own stories. She educates on the various forms of bullying and the oppression used that built this country and continues to exist here. Includes a back matter full of wonderful resources of terms, movements and people to know. I hope this book does help educators and parents to ignite or reignite the passion we have to make a difference.
June 6, 2019
If it were possible to give this book negative stars I would. This book is the sort that honestly should carry with it some sort of criminal liability for the author. For one, the author comes dangerously close to urging treasonous behavior when it comes to her disrespect for any authority that does not meet her (very terrible) standards of truth and justice. Moreover, the use of this book or others like it in schools should be viewed as criminal abuse and exploitation of minors, as this book has as its deliberate and open aim the corruption of young people according to the political and moral philosophy of the author. It's fairly obvious from the book and its approach that the author considers our current president to be a bully--in which the author has plenty of company. But it is less clear if the author realizes that her and her ilk are equally bullies when it comes to their own worldview, especially since the author has contempt for truth in history and in identity, and her aggressive contempt is at least as bullying as any of the unfriendly tweets or comments by our commander-in-chief. Those in glass houses, like the author, should not start stone-throwing contests.
This book is a short, heavily illustrated and bilingual book in English and Spanish. Despite its short size the author is somewhat ambitious (if not particularly skilled or knowledgeable) in seeking to paint a large picture of American history and bullying in culture. She operates from an intersectionalist view by which people gain points to earn psychological freedom from the burden of being privileged because they are women, people of color, sexual minorities, or non-Christians with various disabilities. The author posits that Americans came over to the New World to exploit other people, which would be laughable if this person were not in the position of miseducating children according to her erroneous belief system. By the time the author gets around to encouraging students to stand within "their truth" rather than seeking to better understand and mold themselves according to the truth, it has become all too clear that this author wishes to push her progressive agenda on the readers of this book just as she probably does in her terrible classroom. At the end of the book the author urges readers to seek as their heroes various intersectionally challenged figures that she happens to view as inspirational.
While the most appropriate thing to do with a book like this would be to ban it, burn it, and subject its author to various civil and criminal penalties for her crimes against humanity, there are some things that can be done by a parent who finds a book like this one assigned for reading for an impressionable child. For one, the parent can take it as a learning opportunity to teach children about the difference between subjective opinion and fantasy, where this author resides, and objective historical and spiritual truth. Additionally, this book provides the reader or any adult relatives the chance to concede the injustices that have been done throughout history (some of which this author talks about, such as the appropriation of indigenous land as well as the land theft of Mexico that took place during and after the Mexican-American war), while also pointing out that the founding colonists of our nation had a variety of motives for settlement, some of which included religious and political freedom, something this author probably has little fondness for given the tone of her writing and her obvious anti-Christian bias. In short, the response to miseducation like this book is proper education that puts things in the proper perspective and that speaks according to objective truth rather than leftist political talking points.
This book is a short, heavily illustrated and bilingual book in English and Spanish. Despite its short size the author is somewhat ambitious (if not particularly skilled or knowledgeable) in seeking to paint a large picture of American history and bullying in culture. She operates from an intersectionalist view by which people gain points to earn psychological freedom from the burden of being privileged because they are women, people of color, sexual minorities, or non-Christians with various disabilities. The author posits that Americans came over to the New World to exploit other people, which would be laughable if this person were not in the position of miseducating children according to her erroneous belief system. By the time the author gets around to encouraging students to stand within "their truth" rather than seeking to better understand and mold themselves according to the truth, it has become all too clear that this author wishes to push her progressive agenda on the readers of this book just as she probably does in her terrible classroom. At the end of the book the author urges readers to seek as their heroes various intersectionally challenged figures that she happens to view as inspirational.
While the most appropriate thing to do with a book like this would be to ban it, burn it, and subject its author to various civil and criminal penalties for her crimes against humanity, there are some things that can be done by a parent who finds a book like this one assigned for reading for an impressionable child. For one, the parent can take it as a learning opportunity to teach children about the difference between subjective opinion and fantasy, where this author resides, and objective historical and spiritual truth. Additionally, this book provides the reader or any adult relatives the chance to concede the injustices that have been done throughout history (some of which this author talks about, such as the appropriation of indigenous land as well as the land theft of Mexico that took place during and after the Mexican-American war), while also pointing out that the founding colonists of our nation had a variety of motives for settlement, some of which included religious and political freedom, something this author probably has little fondness for given the tone of her writing and her obvious anti-Christian bias. In short, the response to miseducation like this book is proper education that puts things in the proper perspective and that speaks according to objective truth rather than leftist political talking points.
January 12, 2020
The title doesn't say it all, but the author had to start somewhere. Among myriad pertinent topics of the day--bullying included--it's a book intended to help children sort through issues of race, gender, history, self-image, art, acceptance, and appropriate language. If you're an adult, you might believe you're already on top of such matters; I suggest that it's a good idea to read all the material you can get your hands on in order to understand the world of challenges our young folk are living in, or soon will be. In the two years since its publication, When a Bully Is President has become even more relevant for those who want to contribute to kindness and teach children the power of love.
Maya Gonzalez's clear, elegant text is printed in both English and Spanish.
Maya Gonzalez's clear, elegant text is printed in both English and Spanish.
July 22, 2018
Well... this book really had nothing to do with our bully president. It should have just been called "When you deal with a bully: truth and creativity for oppressive times" because that's what this book was about - remembering that you are special even if a bully tells you otherwise and it encouraged the reader to look deep within themselves and remember what makes them unique. So, I liked that... but there was a lot of repetition ("stand in your truth" must have been written at least a dozen times) and it had nothing to do with our president and how to handle him or how he's encouraging racism, sexism, and an assortment of other bigoted behavior.
July 20, 2017
The concept for this is lovely. The art is wonderful, too. I just have a few quibbles with the English and Spanish not always being consistently in the same order. And sometimes all the text makes the pages extremely busy. All-in-all, a good book that many people are likely searching for right now and will hopefully find useful.
December 6, 2017
I love the concept of this book - that the answer to the current times starts with oneself
I think the title could be frightening rather than empowering
I LOVED the illustrations and remaining content
I think the title could be frightening rather than empowering
I LOVED the illustrations and remaining content
June 13, 2018
Comforting and full of heart, with a very kid-accessible quick history of the oppressions the US was built upon. Do note that this book is not an action guide for getting kids politically involved, though it would be a lovely supplement to such a resource.
March 18, 2020
There are some great tools in this especially if you go into knowing that this isn't teaching you quite how to fight back but more to know what has systemically help create bullies and the importance of self care.
Read
January 24, 2020Excellent job -- portrays some of the oppressions in American history in language kids can understand, the language of bullying. Activity sheets at the end.
November 9, 2024
Not what I hoped for. Way too repetitive, which the author thought a good way to help kids learn, but not used in a way to hold interest.
December 21, 2024
Lovely story and comes with activities to build up pride in oneself and to reflect on negative interpersonal interactions.
November 19, 2025
Well done. All kids should have this book!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews