Laurence Yep

Cockroach Cooties

Yep, L. (2001). Cockroach Cooties. Burbank: Disney Pr.

Other books by Laurence Yep: Auntie Tiger, Dragon Road, The Dragon's Child, Dragon of the Lost Sea, and Dragonwings. There are many more...This is just a sampling.

This book is about Teddy and Bobby, two brothers in San Fransisco's China Town who are eight and nine years old. Teddy, the older of the two narrates the story of how his little brother is bullied by Arnie (or Arnie-zilla as they lovingly call him). They discover that Arnie is terrified of cockroaches and go to their neighbor, "The Bug Lady" to get a cockroach, whom they name Hercules. Hercules is quite effective in the anti-bullying effort, until he meets his end. Then Bobby and Teddy have to come up with another plan. In the end, it turns out that Arnie is the bully he is due to a rough home life with uncaring parents. A friendship is eventually formed after the boys realize why Arnie has the attitude he does.

I love the message that this book sends. Instead of fighting back when being bullied, the kids first tried to work it out on their own. Although they probably shouldn't have played on Arnie's fears, I thought their method was good for an 8 and 9 year old. Becoming friends after finding out that Arnie should be more pitied than feared shows kids that things can change and that not everyone has the same great home life that they might have. I went to a sensitivity training today about this...I think we can all learn from it.

Great book for boys! Creepy crawly things always spark the interest!