Q & A with Trudy Ludwig, Author of "Confessions of a Former Bully"

By Roxanne Davidson, Books That Heal Kids Blogger

One of my favorite children’s authors, Trudy Ludwig, has just come out with a new book, Confessions of a Former Bully, a story written from the unique perspective of a bullying girl and chock-full of great advice, inspirational quotes and interesting facts. I recently had a one-on-one with Trudy to ask her about her new book.As an elementary school counselor, I’ve seen firsthand the harmful effects of bullying, so the subject is very close to my heart. It's obvious you’ve done a lot of research for Confessions of a Former Bully. Why is this subject so close to your heart? I experienced relational aggression both as a child and as a young adult and those painful memories have stayed with me throughout my life. So when my daughter, who was seven at the time, was the target of bullying friends, I wanted to find a way to help her. I spent a lot of time on the Internet and in libraries, searching for age-appropriate children’s books on the subject. When I discovered that there really weren’t enough resources available, I wanted to fill that void by writing stories about relational aggression and friendship issues. I noticed you wrote this book for upper elementary school readers. Why did you target this particular age group? As I cite in Confessions, 74% of eight- to eleven-year-olds report teasing and bullying occur in their schools. That’s a problem too big for me to ignore. I firmly believe that if we address bullying at an earlier age then perhaps it won’t be as prevalent by middle school and high school.I often hear teachers and parents tell kids to "just ignore it" when other children are being cruel to them. In Confessions, you don’t recommend this strategy-- why? In my author visits around the country, I’ve talked with thousands of kids in Kindergarten through grade 8 and I’ve asked them if that ignore advice works for them. Few students said yes. Most said no; they found that ignoring the bully can actually make the problem worse. It’s fine and dandy for adults to give kids advice, but we’ve got to remember to check in with the kids to find out if our advice is actually working for them. If it isn’t, we need to offer more effective strategies.The students at my school are big fans of your first book, My Secret Bully. What made you decide to have Katie, the bully from My Secret Bully, as the protagonist in your new book? Over the years I’ve had many children ask me, "But what ever happened to Katie? Will she and Monica ever become friends again?" When I was conceptualizing Confessions of a Former Bully, it just made perfect sense for me to have Katie pick up where she left off in My Secret Bully. I wanted to write the story from her perspective as she learns important lessons from the adults in her life about bullying and what it means to be a decent friend. I wanted to show what would motivate her to change her attitudes and behavior.Speaking of attitudes, I find that the attitude "bullies never change" doesn't help the bully or the bullied. Do you think your book will have an impact on that attitude? I’m hoping it will. Bullying is a learned behavior and, experts report, it can be "unlearned"—but this "unlearning" process requires adult intervention. If we adults believe that bullying is a fact of life, that bullies never change, we are condoning bullying. We need to change our attitude in order for our kids to change theirs. That’s why, when I write my books, I always keep in mind the adults who are reading these stories to the children in their lives. I want to inform and educate them about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to addressing and preventing bullying. That’s why I’ve included in my author’s note what researchers and anti-bullying experts recommend to create safer school climates.Roxanne Davidson is an elementary school counselor and the creator of the popular book review blog, Books That Heal Kids.