Llama Llama likes to sing.
Gilroy laughs at everything.
Llama sings out just the same.
Gilroy says a not-nice name.
Teacher has some things to say:
calling names is not OK.
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In Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dewdney, Llama Llama is learning lots of new things at school and making many friends. But when Gilroy Goat starts teasing him and some of their classmates, Llama Llama isn’t sure what to do. And then he remembers what his teacher told him—walk away and tell someone. It works! But then Llama Llama feels badly. Can he and Gilroy try to be friends again?
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Taking on a difficult but important part of children’s lives, Anna Dewdney gives readers a way to experience and discuss bullying in a safe and comforting way.
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“The latest Llama Llama comic drama has a dual focus,” reads a review in Booklist. “The first is on the fun and learning encountered during a busy preschool day. The second is how all of this activity can be wrecked by one kid (literally a “kid” here—a young goat), Gilroy, who is not only a billy goat but also, yes, a bully goat. Gilroy snickers at the others during class time, and during recess, he kicks up sand and knocks over the toys and equipment of others. No fooling around here; Dewdney’s solution is to “walk away and tell someone.” Good advice couched in pleasant rhymes and gentle, nicely textured pastel illustrations.”
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Anna Dewdney lives in a very old house in Vermont. She has two teenage daughters and two very muddy dogs. Anna has wanted to write and illustrate children’s books from the time she was a little girl, and she likes nothing better than to sit in her studio and make funny faces as she sketches her characters and writes her stories. Anna has had many jobs (in addition to being a mom); she’s been a middle-school teacher and school bus driver, a waitress, a mail carrier, and a day care teacher.
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“Dewdney’s lovable Llama Llama offers children one strategy to combat bullying, all couched in her trademark rhyming verse and presented through situations that are sure to resonate with those new-to-school.” —Kirkus “[Dewdney] writes touchingly about the emotions of young children… [offering] a model for empathy, courage and forgiveness.” —New York Times Book Review
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