The Revealers

The story is about three seventh-graders Russell, Elliot, and Catalina attending Parkland, nicknamed Darkland by the student who attend there. Russell who seem to always be tongue tied. Elliot is obsessed with dinosaurs and Catalina is half-Filipina. The three are tired of being bullied. A rumor is going round the school about Catalina. They find out how to send school wide messages to the student body. The three post a letter to squelch rumors the popular girls are spreading. The post is known as "The Darkland Revealer." Many of the student can relate to being bullied or bulling. Other students start to send in their stories. It rises the awareness of bulling.

Bullying is a major problem at Parkland Middle School, but none of the adults seem to notice or care. When three students start "The Darkland Revealer," an underground newspaper on the school's LAN where students can share their experiences with bullying, though, they attract the attention of the school's administration and must find a way to prove that allowing students to tell their stories makes a difference. This book is blatent with its message, drawing parallels between bullying at Parkland and "The Diary of Anne Frank." The characters are stereotypical, but act like real middle-schoolers, including making bad choices and suffering the consequences for them. One of the major premises of the book, that seventh-grade students have show more unmoderated access to the all-school distribution list, is slightly unrealistic but works well within the story. Recommended for middle school students, this book is sure to spark discussion. show less

This book makes me want to go back into a classroom again to read it aloud and have great class discussions. The messages about bullying, power of words, friendship and school rules would ignite meaningful and deep conversations in a community of students. The stereotypical characters and their real-life situations were believable and made the book that much easier to understand and relate to.

Three kids who get picked on a lot team up and fight back against bullies, and discover that the pen is truly mightier than the sword. It verges on preachy, and the initial reaction to the first letter (which was a lengthy "I'm a person too!"; reaction was everyone being nicer to her and nobody making fun of it) was pretty unrealistic.

This is a Book About Bullying, and not a story in its own right. It's sure to appear on countless summer reading lists, but the truth is that it's just not that good a book--it's all caught up in its Message, at the expense of character development and decent writing. Fine to use in schools with class discussion, but not something middle-schoolers would actively seek out to read.

Whilhelm puts an new face on an old book/topic. Bullies at school are put in their place by nerdy nobodies (with a little help from the biggest bully) and everyone lives happily ever after. With that said, the author puts together believable characters and plot situations which give the old theme new wings. With his use of computers and technology this reader was kept interested through the last page.

Russell, Catalina, and Elliot are the targets of bullying, gossip, and teasing at their middle school. Feeling like they have nowhere to turn, they take matters into their own hands with some surprising results.

The importance of friends and personal responsibility are emphasized. Mistakes are made, but the kids learn and feel empowered by their actions. A bit heavy handed at times, the overall readability and usefulness of the book allow the high rating.

Russell finds himself on the receiving end of bullying and begins to notice how often it happens to others in school. Finding friends in Elliott and Cataline, the trio conduct a science experiment on the bullying at school. Although things go awry, these three ultimately prevail in helping people see their true colors. The teachers at school don’t quite get it, parents are in the periphery and the bullies are worse than ever and yet Russell and company find a way to beat them in the end. Those who understand what it is like to feel alone surrounded by people and those who have witnessed/experienced bullying first-hand will all find something resonant in this story. Use it in your classrooms as an authentic text component or as a base show more for opening up the bully discussion in your school. show less