This is a book for very young children, so it’s short and simplistic – but, for that age group, it’s excellent, and covers this month’s “reading challenge” topic of mean girls/school bullies.  What happens here, in a primary school in early twentieth century rural Connecticut, is that cool girl Peggy and her sheep-like best friend Maddie make fun of their classmate Wanda, because she wears the same old dress to school but claims that she has a hundred beautiful dresses at home.  Wanda’s hard-working widowed dad has little money and is struggling to raise his two children alone, and is also having to cope with them all getting grief about their Polish surname and accent, but the other kids don’t see that – until Wanda disappears from school and the teacher tells the class that her family have moved away, because everyone in the area was being unkind to them.

Later, Wanda sends a letter to the class for Christmas, expressing kind thoughts to everyone.  Peggy and Maddie realise how horrible they’ve been, and vow never to treat anyone badly again.  As I said, it’s a book aimed at very young children – but the whole issue of bullies, now sometimes referred to as “mean girls” or “mean boys” is a big thing in school stories, because it’s something that affects all schools.  Single-sex, co-educational, private, state, day, boarding … even the King fell foul of school bullies.   But, in books, things usually turn out OK.  The bullies either get their come-uppance, see the error of their ways, or, usually both.  Does that happen in real life?  Does it heck as like!

What sometimes happens in books is that either the bully or the victim is welcomed into the other’s circle of friends, or even that they become bosom buddies, e.g. Jack Lambert and Jane Carew in the Chalet School books.   It may happen in books: I’m not sure that it happens in real life.  And, apparently, “bully romances” are now a thing – one character (usually a boy) bullies another character (usually a girl), and then they get together.  Ugh.  Disliking someone at first sight but then realising that they are actually your Mr Right (Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe) is one thing, but I find it rather disturbing that children’s books should be suggesting that there’s something romantic about bullying.

And the victim usually forgives them.  Huh!   Maybe I’m just not a very book-heroine person, but I still harbour … shall we say “negative thoughts” towards people who were horrible to me at school.   I’m sure they’ve all long since forgotten that I exist – but I don’t think that those on the receiving end ever do forget.   One of the best “mean girls” books is Blubber by Judy Blume, in which main character Jill joins in with the in-crowd in bullying a girl called Linda, only for the in-crowd to turn on her at the end … but it’s only Jill who ends up suffering, not Wendy, the one who starts all the bullying.

Anyway, hooray for books, in which the nasty kids always get their come-uppance.  If only it worked like that in real life!!