You Can't Sit With Us by Nancy Rue

~Saturday Stories~

Typical Ginger: "“Now, tell me the names people call you. Think of them as the labels they put on you.” I didn’t remind her we only had fifteen minutes left. “Annoying,” I said right away. She wrote Annoying on one of the notes and stuck it on the front of my T-shirt. “What else?” “Loser,” I said. That went on a note and then on my shirt. We continued with Smelly, Not Girly, Loud, Obnoxious, Klutz, Weirdo, Fat, Freak, Bullhorn, Stupid, and Ugly."

After all that had been done about anti-bullying, Ginger thought she was finally safe from the Pack's tauntings. Wrong. Kylie and her friends have resumed their bullying - now undercover. They have ways to hurt her without anyone ever being able to pinpoint it to them. And this time Ginger can't tell others about it... or something worse might happen.

Ginger's voice was really authentic. I liked getting to know more about her and what she felt about her mom dying years ago and their family's constant moving. It hurt when she couldn't sit with her friends anymore because the bullies said so. The way Ginger grew and matured throughout the story is simply beautiful.

Bullying isn't a joke. It's real and it's out there. You Can't Sit With Us deals more with the word-bullying than the hit-and-punch bullying. The type of bullying that leaves you feeling like a loser and a nerd. The type that threatens a girl through email and spreads rumors on Twitter and vandalizes her dad's car. The type that's hard to pinpoint and that's easy to miss for the adults. But it's still there.

You Can't Sit With Us is Nancy Rue's second book in the anti-bullying series. It is told from the bullied girl's point of view. Ginger learns that sometimes bullying won't go away and that she can't give away the power to be herself even when it's hard. There is also discussion on how to do that.

If you want some great fiction with an even greater message, you might enjoy this book. The first one - So Not Okay- is told from the bystander's point of view. Sorry I'm Not Sorry, the third book, is told from the bully's point of view.

If you'd like more information on the anti-bullying campaign you can visit the movement's website. For more on Nancy Rue, visit her website, Facebook page, and blogs for tweens, teens, and new adults.