I certainly hope you do not have any bullies in your life, but if you do, I’m very sorry. And I want you to read this week’s picture book because I think it might make you feel better. And if you don’t have any bullies, read it anyway. You’ll be glad you did.
Karen, an extremely cute kangaroo (I think), and her extremely cute friends, just want to have fun. Building sand castles, swinging on the swing set — these are the halcyon days of summer. And all is going well until extremely mean Skyler, a blue bear (maybe), and his extremely mean buddies, take over the playground and destroy Karen’s beautiful sand castle. Tears are shed, but almost immediately, Karen’s extremely cute friends pick up their sand shovels and start helping Karen to rebuild her beautiful castle. It’s bigger, it’s better, then, WHAM! Skyler and his meanies bash and stomp and tear that big, beautiful castle down.
As you can imagine, this cycle of building, tearing down, and rebuilding again goes on for a bit. Playground politics, as we know, can be brutal. So, do the extremely cute animals eventually give up and relocate to a friendlier play area? Don’t think too hard about this one because this is a picture book, after all, and a sad ending will guarantee an unhappy audience.
It turns out that the cuties are rather handy with bulldozers, heavy-lift helicopters and welders, so when the bullies demolish yet another sand castle (bigger and better than ever!), the extremely cute animals not only get really mad — they get busy! Do they use their heavy-machinery skills for good or evil? Will the bullies regret having made enemies out of their welder-wielding peers?
