Children’s Author Uses Folklore to Deal with Bullies

Janet Heller is using painful memories of the past to help educate and encourage children who might face the same obstacles she did. When Heller was young her family moved to a new town, where she started at a new school.

“As a totally new student I was around new people, and like many new students I got bullied,” Heller said.

Because Heller was new, many of the other students did not play with her, each day on the playground one girl would call Heller names and make fun of her in front of other students.

“She would say things like, you are so skinny I can see right through you,” said Heller. “At the time it was a devastating remark.”

Another student threw rocks at Heller, and would hit her and call her names.

“I was shy and I didn’t have terrific social skills, and I was five-years-old. I was baffled with how to deal with this,” she said.

Heller was too terrified to tell her teacher what was happening, and would often just let the kids bully her in silence.

“I wouldn’t let the kids see my cry, but I would go home and cry,” she said.

She finally confided in her mother who tried to comfort her with the cliché: “Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.”

“That isn’t true,” said Heller. “I understand she was trying to help me, but name calling can be damaging to a child.”

The bullying went on for a few more years, until her younger brother was born and parents moved again to accommodate a growing family.

Heller learned to handle bullies, as she got older, and the once name-called child is now a professor for the English and Women’s Studies Department
at Western Michigan University

She has written a children’s book to help kids deal with the issue of bullying. Her book, “How the Moon Regained Her Shape,” uses Native American folklore about the cycle of the moon to tell the story of how bullying can affect a young person.

“In the book, the sun bullies the moon and the moon feels so bad she shrinks,” said Heller “The moon’s friends help her regain her self-esteem and tell her how much she means to them. By the end of the story she regains her shape.”

Heller’s book, published by Sylvan Dell Publishing, has gained nation-wide recognition from the literary community, including the 2007 Children’s Choice Award, and the 2006 Summer’s Pick. Heller has also garnered attention for her efforts to educate children on the affects of bullying through not only the book, but also speaking engagements.

“One of the points I am trying to make in the story, if someone bullies you tell someone. I only told my mother,” she said. “I sort of lived with the problem for many years. It was too much for me, and it caused a wound that took years to heal.”

Heller said for many years she judged herself and body based on the remarks made to her as a kid.

“Everyone in the world is a little different and we need to accept ourselves and each other. Someone should have told me that friends and family do love me; I should have emphasized that instead. But instead, because a small group of children didn’t like me I thought there was something wrong with me. Adults really need to help children realize that if one person does not like us it does not make us defective,” Heller said.

Heller has put in a lot of time and effort researching bullying for her book and speaking engagements, according to her up to 75 percent of children get bullied.

“It is so common and frequent and can be so damaging,” she said.

“How the Moon Regained Her Shape,” is not just a book for children, Heller said she wrote it for adults as well.

“In my case the one adult I did trust didn’t really help me. She tried to, but what she needed to do was help me find ways to deal with it,” she said.
Heller was in Atlanta attending the International Reading Association Convention on May 3. She has been working to educate teachers on signs of bullying, and ways they can help students.

“We need to get to the point in this society where we take very seriously the harassment of people because they look different. School systems, coaches, religious organizations and other organizations that deal with children need to plant at a very early age that it is important to celebrate differences. That needs to be emphasized more,” Heller said.

Heller says it is also important to teach children what bullying is, and that it is not normal behavior.

“Rape and sexual harassment are a form of bullying. Bullying is unmotivated harassment. It is the bullies’ fault and they need some form of counseling. All too often bullying is not punished, or not punished appropriately,” said Heller.

According to her research about 30 percent of children who bully commit crimes as adults.

“A some point we need to intervene, I don’t think authorities take it seriously,” she said. “I think that in extreme cases children who have been bullied and children who are bullies need physiological counseling. If that is not happening at school parents need to seek help.”