The Offenders - Jerry Craft

The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention! is an action / adventure story designed to teach kids about the negative effects of bullying. It's the story of 5 school bullies who get superpowers, but instead of turning into cool heroes, they take on the characteristics of the kids they pick on.

I write for young people because when I was a kid, I didn’t like to read. I only read Marvel Comics and whatever books I was forced to read in school. As an adult, I realize the importance of reading and do what I can to reach reluctant readers. I focus on creating characters that are interesting enough to get a kid to read a book on his or her own.


Guided Reading level – W
Grade level Equivalent- 5
Interest level- grades 5-8 (middle school reader) Ages 12-up

You can see more of my work and learn more about me on my website. http://jerrycraft.net/

Tell us why you wrote this book and created these characters

I wrote “The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention!” because it seems as if bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Many books that I see are about kids who ARE bullied. My book is about the kids who are DOING the bullying. One teacher told me she read one of my books in class and a young girl gasped and said, “Oh no, I just did that to someone this morning! I didn’t realize it was bad. I have to go apologize.” I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Tell something about the characters you would like young readers to grasp.

Since I have loved superhero stories since my Marvel Comic days, The Offenders is about 5 school bullies who get superpowers, but instead of turning into cool looking heroes, they look like the kids they pick on. So one gets really smart, but physically uncoordinated; one gets super thin; one gains 100 pounds; one gets two large metallic buck teeth; and the girl who calls kids mousey shrinks down to the size of a mouse! Now they have to protect the school, but they’re too embarrassed to go outside. It’s a lesson in Karma!

Plus, when the kids transform, they trade physical characteristics with each other. So it’s hard to like a kid, or not like him because of how he or she looks. Because it changes.

How do you see your book fitting into schools and into the concept of Windows, Mirrors and Sliding glass doors.

One of the things I’m most proud of is that the main characters are 3 boys and 2 girls from very diverse backgrounds; both racially and economically. I did a LOT of research to avoid traditional stereotypes and to create characters that kids want to know better. It’s also a perfect book for schools because it makes kids aware of how their words and actions can affect other kids’ lives. There’s also plenty of humor and excitement, so it never comes across as a lecture. We all know how much kids “love” lectures. ;)

I tried to be descriptive enough where kids can see what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, and enjoy the walk.

Share a little about your research and other efforts to make the portrayal of your characters culturally accurate

I am most proud of Dexter Diaz, who is Puerto Rican. As an African-American man, I have always been acutely aware at how stereotypes have shaped the way that our kids have been portrayed. So the last thing that I wanted to do was to be guilty of that myself. So after I wrote Dexter’s chapters, I gave them to two friends who are Puerto Rican, and asked them to be VERY critical. One is a male author, the other is a mom (obviously female).

They told me what they liked, and told me where they thought that my portrayal was inaccurate. So I kept working on it, until it had passed both of their tests. The same goes for Bobby Bonderman, who is a Korean boy adopted by White parents. In fact, this was probably the most research I have ever done for a book, and I’ve illustrated and/or written about 18.

I also hired my two teenage sons as co-authors to give authenticity to the characters. So if the characters are playing a video game, they made sure I didn’t have them playing Pac Man or Space Invaders. I had a mom email me to say that after reading the book, she finally knew what her kids were talking about!

What you have done to insure quality in the finished product in terms of content, editing, and appropriateness for the age range.

First, I never do any book that I don’t want my kids to read, so there’s never anything inappropriate in my work. I was also fortunate to get 2 schools to test my book, before releasing it to the public. One school in upstate NY chose it for their “One School, One Read” program. So not only did I hear from kids, but I also heard from teachers and librarians. To me, that’s the ultimate seal of approval.

Most recently it was chosen for PACER’s first ever bookclub. PACER is one of the world’s leading anti-bullying organizations. They are the ones who made October National Bullying Awareness Month.

Here’s what they had to say:

Creative, funny, and engaging – this book presents a unique look at the dynamics of bullying. With a diverse cast of characters, the book illustrates that bullying affects everyone – and that the students who are bullying can change their behavior and make their school a more positive place.

— PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center

So after gathering initial feedback, the version that I have now is EXACTLY the way that I want it.

Book Review - Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The only thing wrong with this books was the cover - I would have loved to see Piddy Sanchez there, not an anonymous locker. I am not Latina, but this book took me back to high school, and all the reasons my brain wanted to forget that ordeal. It's more than a book about bullying, it's about believing in yourself, and finding courage, and even, in the case of Yaqui, about having nothing and wanting to tear down those who do, even if there is really no good reason.

Many people are thrilled about stories that feature strong female characters. But we don't always begin life strong, we become strong. And along the way, we often get knocked down, hard. Then we are faced with the hard choices. I like stories that explain how girls gain strength. This is one of them.   Many girls will read this and identify with Piddy's plight. I hope they will also find courage from her.

This story is hard, and tough, and Piddy has to learn some deep lessons about herself and her mother (and father) I cried when she was knocked down by life, worried when she contemplated giving up, and then found myself cheering. I wish every victim could find a source of strength. Maybe what I liked most about the book is that the author did not work a miracle and reform Yaqui to make her see the error of her ways.

This is not a story about a bully. It is about a victim making decisions on how to live her life in an undamaged fashion. Doing the old-fashioned "shake hands and become friends" thing would have trivialized, if not ruined, this story, and left too many young readers saying - adults really do not understand our existence. In real life, the Yaqui's of the world do not experience a revelation. The rest of us have to change and learn how to live with them always around us. Piddy changes, but so do other key players, and maybe that adds the biggest hopeful note to the story.



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Book Review - Fighting For Dontae

Fighting for Dontae by Mike Castan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story depicts the struggles of a young man and his friends in the inner city. Javier is in seventh grade and joins a gang because the gang says so - they jump him and after being badly beaten in the initation he is in, no choice in the matter. But he does chose to stay as out of things as possible. Students will understand his struggle to be himself, when the friends he has grown up with turn to drug use and violence. His father is in and out of jail, more in than out. When he comes home things are great, but eventually he breaks a law and ends up back inside.

Javier has one thing going for him. A teacher that he learns to like and respect takes an interest in him. When he is forced to do a service project, that teacher recruits him as an aide to the special ed class she teaches. At first concerned that his friends will call him just another "retard", he learns to care for the kids he cares for, and have pride when he can help them. And when that teacher lets him know she beleives in him, his natural intelligence and empathy come to the fore. Dontae and the other kids need him, and that need serves as a counter pull to the call of the gang, the increasing violent confrontations his friends are involved in, and the drugs that surround him.

At times the story gets a little preachy. But it shows the difference a caring adult can make if he/she says just the right word at the right time in a young person's life.

Yes, there is cursing, there is a gang, and these are real kids, not saits. And yes, there is drug use, one of many temptations Javier and other real kids have to confront and learn to avoid. Watching Javier say no may help other kids learn to do the same thing. And watching Javier help Dontae and the other kids int he class serves as an example of the power that caring for someone else can have for the giver.

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Book Review - I Am J

I Am J by Cris Beam


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I went to this book at the recommendation of a friend. The beginning was slow, without that recommendation I would have put this aside. I'm glad I didn't. I am J deals with a boy born into a girl's body by mistake. He has no doubt what he is and bristles at being called a lesbian. That may be the one big fault I found, his homophobia which he does overcome after spending time with other GLBTQ people. J is clear that he is a boy, and has realized this since he was two or three. It's his body that's wrong. He goes to great lengths to push aside traces of femininity, binding his breasts and studying how other men walk and act so he can be more himself.

He is lucky to have friends who accept him, and are willing to help his journey toward getting T - testosterone, the hormone that will allow him to be more himself. His family poses a continued problem along his journey. I found myself hurting for him, and rooting for him to find himself and for his family to come around and accept him.

In many ways this reminded me of Luna, a book about a girl erroneously born into a female body. That story, told from the POV of the girl's younger sister, is an interesting contrast and companion piece to this one. Crossing Lines would form the third part of the transgender triangle, a story of a transgender girl fromt he POV of a homophobic boy who can't understand the boy dressing in girl's clothing. Having read all three and their very different approaches to the issue, I feel I understand things better now.

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Boy Book Review - Crossing Lines

Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This story deals with a high school football jock, named Adonis (and getting away with that name), faced with a new cross-dressing student, Alan and his homophobic teammates. Adonis is determined to keep his spot in the high school hierarchy and gain the beautiful girl. When Alan becomes friends with Adonis' sister--President and Vice-President of the school's fashion club--Adonis fears he will be tainted by association with the boy everyone thinks is gay. As the bullying of Alan, now nicknamed Alana by other members of Adonis' team, escalates, Adonis faces a line that could lead him or Alan into disaster.

This is a story with a good message, but the treatment seemed forced. Too many 2-dimensional characters: Alan's career soldier father, Adonis' gruff but well meaning father, the cute girl who expects Adonis to do the right thing. Even Adonis himself is a stereotypical jock to whom image is everything, even if maintaining the image requires that he lie about bagging the girl. I liked how the members of the fashion club banded together with Alan, but even that seemed forced, as in girls are good, it's those boys that are the problem.

My real problem with this book was the ending, it just fell flat. This has a good message on being a reluctant bully and the cost that can have to both the bully and people around him, but the message is too in-your-face. I wanted more into how the events effected Adonis and family members, and even Alan. Instead the book just presents things and then stops cold.

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Book Review - By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book about Daelyn Rice typifies all the victims in the jungle that is the American school. I felt for her, bled for her, and int he end stayed up until well after midnight to finish this book and find out what happens to her as the calendar winds down on the last 23 days of her life. She has failed at suicide numerous times in the past, this time she intends to succeed with the help pf a suicide website. The book takes us through the atrocities (and I don't use that word lightly) committed against her over the years for the sin of being overweight and carrying that invisible "victim" sign that bullies know so well.

I don't choose friends. Which works out great because they don't choose me.

Those are Daelyn's words. She sees no sign that life gets better and hates that the suicide website dictates that she must wait at least 23 days before she can kill herself. In the meantime she's out to sever all connections with the world. But even the act of resurrecting the horrible memories from her past forges bonds with this life. The website forces her to answer questions about herself, her life, and life after she is gone. A geeky neighbor in his own battle for life and the school's new fat-girl victim leave her asking questions of her own.

As the calendar approached her final days I could not put the book down. This is about the bullicide and the victims of bullies. How kids can be driven to believe there is nothing for them except a future of continued torment, why they believe friends and family will be happier once they are gone, and why platitudes do more harm than good. The big problem I had was her near clueless parents. Daelyn can't talk and her food has to be pureed before she can get it down a throat damaged by her last suicide attempt, and she has scars on her wrists from previous tries. Her parents have her own suicide watch and seeing a therapist. Still, they don't seem to have any clue of what her life has really been like. But they are so busy giving her space they never come close to seeing the trauma she dealing with. I can understand her thinking that its her survival that troubles them and once she's dead they will be content.

Needless to say I could not stop reading until that last page.

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Boy Book Review - Give a Boy a Gun

Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

This is book makes no attempts at surprising the reader, we know from the opening that someone has died, and the description of the death - "...the bulet smashed into the left side of his skull and tore into his brain, he probably lived for ten to fifteen seconds" is powerful and disturbing. Told as a series of excerpts from interviews after the shooting, this book kept me turning pages to learn more about the school, the dynamics of the people involved and the shooters. We follow the two young men from seventh through tenth grade to the day of the shooting. No where do we get an answer to why they did it, that isn't the point of the book. What we see are the people around them, the friends and enemies, family members, school administration, we see signs, and we see how easily those signs were overlooked.

But that's the message for adults.

or teens, especially young boys, the message is simpler - these two young men, who thought no one cared about them, mattered to more people than they ever realized. Their loss leaves a void in the lives of others.  Everyone wants to matter, and I think every reader will see that these young men did matter, not because of what they did at the end of their lives, but because of  every moment they lived before that end.