Farley Katz

This book is a book about a bully who hates nerds. The boys name is Niko who was in the fourth grade. One day the principal told Niko that if he bullies another kid he will be expelled from school.Niko has a brother whose name is Adam. Nikos mom is also watching Niko from bullying kids. Their is one problem Niko became a bullie because his dad is not with him. His dad had not been with Niko since he was a baby.

This book is good but has some language that is not suitble for chirldren under the age of 10. The pictures in the book look horrible in some way but still I like the book.The main story is about a bullie who gos to bording school because he picked on kids at his old school.I would give the book a rate of 4 because of the bad languge that was in this book. Thats why I think this book is good. The protaginst is mostly Niko because the author wrote most of Nikos thoughts in the book.… (meer)

Farley Katz has written and illustrated a wonderful book about bullying from the bully's point of view. This one should provoke a lot of discussions for children, their parents and teachers. I didn't know that you could actually feel sorry for a bully, but Niko Kaylor with all his bravado and intelligence is actually a confused and angry boy. Niko is forced to write a journal by his mother, his therapist and the school. He illustrates it with all the hatred and anger he can muster and writes what he thinks the "unholy trinity" wants to read. He still continues to bully and ignore the threats placed on him by the school. Until he takes it all too far one day. He is sent to a reform school and becomes the victim instead of victor.

I think most adults will know Katz's work from Mad Magazine and a lot of the humor present there is carried over. There are situations in the story that would never be allowed to occur at any school in the United States but are illustrated to the extreme to make his point. Bullies have issues of their own and should be dealt with accordingly and quickly. I really enjoyed this one and if you enjoyed Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you will like this opposing point of view.… (meer)

I received Journal of a Schoolyard Bully by Farley Katz through the Goodreads Firstreads program. The font was fun and the illustrations were well done. Unfortunately that's pretty much the extent of the positive things I have to say about this book. I'd really like to know what the author was thinking when he wrote this. Mr. Katz, who is the youngest staff cartooner for The New Yorker, clearly has talent but this book is certainly not evidence of it.

I will say that it seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of a middle school bully's journal. Which means that almost all of it is dull, the bully has no redeeming qualities and takes no responsibility for anything. The author touches briefly on some personal issues the bully has, which are likely the cause for his bully behavior, but sadly these are dealt with just long enough to give you a sliver of an idea of what the kid is actually thinking. Then he just goes back to being a little prick.

I certainly wasn't expecting the bully to be 100% reformed by the end of the book, with tons of new friends who'd forgiven his former bully ways and a ticker-tape parade in his honor, but I did expect that he'd see the light to an extent and that he'd go through some kind of personal growth process. Nope. The book is just a bunch of examples of him bullying kids, tricking the psychologist he's required to see and just generally a story about a kid who's a big asshole.

You'd imagine that this book, which clearly borrows plenty from Diary of a Wimpy Kid, would be geared towards a young adult audience. Maybe it is, I actually don't have a clue, but it seems that some of the vocabulary in this book is well above what a supposed middle school bully would use and certainly I wouldn't be comfortable with my 7th grader reading an account of a unrepentant bully.

Overall, it was visually pleasing and this is an author who clearly has promise. I just really don't understand what he was trying to accomplish with this book.… (meer)