Review: Journal Of A Schoolyard Bully By Farley Katz

Journal of a Schoolyard Bully
Genre: Middlegrade
Publisher: St Martins Press

Summary: In the tradition of the mega successful DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and DORK DIARIES comes Niko Taylor, a school bully who must keep a journal to right all the wrongs he has done, but Niko, being a habitual trouble-maker, has other ideas.

Niko Kaylor, the terror of his middle school, doles out wedgies and collects money he doesn’t need. When he is forced to begin keeping a journal of his activities to curb his bullying ways, he secretly turns his diary into a how-to guide for bullies. Now, against the wishes of his peers, Niko plans to conquer his middle school and teach everyone a lesson in bullying, including his teachers. 

Review: I found this while sorting my room out, it happened to be in the wadrobe. It was sent for review and I must of lost it in the midst of all the stuff I have. I went into reading this thinking it was going to be like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. Which I loved (well the film) It tells the tale of a boy called Niko who happens to love bullying people. He bullies people that much that he has to have some counselling. I found this book to be rather boring and not funny at all. There was no moral to the story, just a middle grade boy getting his kicks for bullying children. Literally all through the book he was plotting to bully someone different. I thought that maybe it would change throughout the book and that maybe he would learn a lesson, that bullying is unacceptable. But even the ending was a dissapointment and there was no lesson learnt. If anything it was sending a message to kids that bully is a fine thing to do. I dont know if the author meant for the book to have the meaning of this, but thats what it came across because the main character Niko in the story carried on bullying.

I think it didnt help that it was diary formed either because I find it hard to read books like this, or that it was middlegrade because the boy had such a wild imagination I didnt know if what he was saying was actually true. I dont reccomend this for young adult reads. I would say a young ten year old boy would probably enjoy this and find it funny. I dont think I could really find any good points to this book apart from the sketches they were pretty funky and done wonderfully.

I rate this: D