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Melissa Harker Ridenour, formerly a teacher and librarian, is now a freelance writer and children’s book author. She has published essays, poetry, magazine articles, and web articles. She maintains a child safety blog, as well.
Her first book, What Would You Do? A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers, was honored as a Best Books Award Finalist, USA Book News and was awarded five stars as a Reader’s Favorite.
Melissa continues to advocate for the education and well-being of children in her new book, The Bully and the Booger Baby: A Cautionary Tale.
Melissa is an alumnus of West Virginia University with a Master’s degree in English, Education, and Library Science. She resides happily in Morgantown, WV with her beloved husband and family.
Reviewed by Michelle Robertson for Readers' Favorite
The Bully And The Booger Baby: A Cautionary Tale by Melissa Harker Ridenour is a story of human emotion, high tech computers, and bullies. It will teach you a life lesson as you read, even if you don’t realize it.
When Katy, the new girl, meets Robby, her new school's robot, she is totally amazed and instantly befriends the robot. They both witness something mean happening to a fellow student while on a tour of the school. However, when Katy expresses her feelings about the situation, Robby doesn't understand, because he was programmed without feelings. As the day ends and Robby is put away for the night, something happens to him. He is now unique, different from other robots; he can now understand what feelings and expressions are. The story then goes on to tell how a robot solved a very big bullying problem at the school, when his human companions failed to notice it even existed.
Melissa Harker has taken a very serious scenario and created a fun, inspiring, and creative story to help children, parents, and educators relate to the plot of the story and to one another when it comes to bullying. I loved that the story portrayed the importance of standing together as one, and being united to make change happen. The end of the book offers insightful research for parents, teachers, and other educators, on how to handle a bully situation. The book would be an excellent reference for everyone to have on their shelves. It's important to know about bullying and I would recommend children and adults of all ages read this book, or have it read to them.
