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Billy Bully
In this funny counting book, Billy Bully learns what it means to be a good friend.
"When Billy Bully comes to play
he always takes the fun away."
As Billy Bully does one rotten thing after another, his friends dwindle to zero. With a little effort, Billy Bully realizes that a real friend doesn't think only of himself. Kids will love to count down--and most importantly--back up, as Billy Bully makes it up to his friends and gets the whole gang back together!
"When Billy Bully comes to play
he always takes the fun away."
As Billy Bully does one rotten thing after another, his friends dwindle to zero. With a little effort, Billy Bully realizes that a real friend doesn't think only of himself. Kids will love to count down--and most importantly--back up, as Billy Bully makes it up to his friends and gets the whole gang back together!
32 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 1, 2023
Counting book plus maybe a bit of Reform School for Errant Preschoolers, this picture book may strike you as charming and funny. Or not.
"When Billy Bully comes to play
he always takes the fun away."
Such is the anti-hero of this counting book. Billy Bully does one naughty thing after another, counting from 10 down 0.
Although the pictures are preschooler-cartoonish and very colorful, is this really a lighthearted book? Just because he reforms his behavior and kater counts from 0 up to a happy bull's 10?
SOMEHOW THIS PICTURE BOOK STRIKES ME AS SOMETHING REMINISCENT OF THE VICTORIAN ERA IN ENGLAND
You know, presenting moralistic tales to improve the young 'uns. The rhyming couplets add to that impression, but that's just a Goodreads reviewer sharing, "What did you think."
BACK TO THE BUSINESS OF RATING
The intended audience could be many children who want very-very much to be good. Or to receive approval. Or to become popular.
For that intended audience? Sure, FIVE STARS.
Whether or not this book will actually help anybody, whether for learning to count or for making friends? That remains to be seen.
"When Billy Bully comes to play
he always takes the fun away."
Such is the anti-hero of this counting book. Billy Bully does one naughty thing after another, counting from 10 down 0.
Although the pictures are preschooler-cartoonish and very colorful, is this really a lighthearted book? Just because he reforms his behavior and kater counts from 0 up to a happy bull's 10?
SOMEHOW THIS PICTURE BOOK STRIKES ME AS SOMETHING REMINISCENT OF THE VICTORIAN ERA IN ENGLAND
You know, presenting moralistic tales to improve the young 'uns. The rhyming couplets add to that impression, but that's just a Goodreads reviewer sharing, "What did you think."
BACK TO THE BUSINESS OF RATING
The intended audience could be many children who want very-very much to be good. Or to receive approval. Or to become popular.
For that intended audience? Sure, FIVE STARS.
Whether or not this book will actually help anybody, whether for learning to count or for making friends? That remains to be seen.
November 30, 2018
Reading level: 2.0
Summary: Billy is a Bull who is a bully at school, he loses all his friends then realizes he must be nice to get them back.
Characteristics that support the genre: This is a very real topic most kids probably deal with at school.
Writing traits:
Voice: The animals are given human qualities in the book
Presentation: This story takes place at a school and playground setting, with the kids interacting throughout the day. It also gives practice on counting up to 10.
Classroom Integration: This book could be presented along with a unit on bullying, and also counting.
Summary: Billy is a Bull who is a bully at school, he loses all his friends then realizes he must be nice to get them back.
Characteristics that support the genre: This is a very real topic most kids probably deal with at school.
Writing traits:
Voice: The animals are given human qualities in the book
Presentation: This story takes place at a school and playground setting, with the kids interacting throughout the day. It also gives practice on counting up to 10.
Classroom Integration: This book could be presented along with a unit on bullying, and also counting.
January 26, 2021
"When Billy Bully comes to play, he always takes the fun away."
One by one, Billy's actions cost him friends until he is finally down to none. Then he realizes how his actions have impacted his friendships and tries to make amends, one friend at a time. "When Billy Bull learns how to play, all his friends come back to stay."
A little on the nose, but sometimes that's what it takes to get the message to students.
One by one, Billy's actions cost him friends until he is finally down to none. Then he realizes how his actions have impacted his friendships and tries to make amends, one friend at a time. "When Billy Bull learns how to play, all his friends come back to stay."
A little on the nose, but sometimes that's what it takes to get the message to students.
January 10, 2019
5 stars for Billy the Bull(nee Bully) who learns friendship the hard way but makes a great comeback in the second half of the book. Readers young and old can learn alongside Billy and find solutions to making and keeping friends. The book serves as a great conversation piece and is a frequent request at preschools.
March 12, 2019
Billy the Bull, whose behavior is that of a bully, learns that you can't be unkind and keep your friends. This is perhaps not as nuanced as one would like, but one can't expect kids' books to do much with the old "It is better to suffer wrong than to do it" scenario. The real problem is the homophone rhyming: rhyme "one" with "won"? Twice? Poor choices, sir.
October 19, 2021
Kindergarten. Fiction
Great book for young kids about bullying. This books also counts down from 6 when he is being a bully and then counts up as he is making friends. Makes it interactive and engaging for the little listeners.
Great book for young kids about bullying. This books also counts down from 6 when he is being a bully and then counts up as he is making friends. Makes it interactive and engaging for the little listeners.
May 12, 2023
this is a great book demonstrating behaviours that chase friends away versus making new friends. illustrations are funny and poignant. my k-2 students enjoyed the counting aspect. I love rhymes, perfect for a read-aloud!!
October 6, 2018
this book was exciting and cute to read and I would recommend it to my classmates
December 2, 2018
Great children’s book. Teaches counting, rhyming, and teaches the lesson of being nice to others
September 27, 2021
A terrific book showing children how bullies become very lonely people. Bravo Alvaro Galan!
September 6, 2023
Good option to teach bullies what are the consequences to their actions.
September 4, 2014
The book Billy the Bully is a story about a mean bull who loses a friend every time he does a mean thing. The story takes place in a school-yard, a place children are familiar with. He starts out with ten friends and ends up with none. When he realizes that all his friends are gone he decides to do something nice to each friend in order to gain their friendship back. The illustrator of this book, Steve Simpson did a great job. He used a lot of colors which grabs children attention and he captured the animals facial expressions perfectly. I noticed that in the book, the authors used different animals and I think they did that to show kids that everybody is different but they still deserve to be treated nicely. This book deals with bullying, which you can tell from the title. I think this is a great way to introduce this concept to young children and to teach them that bullying is ever okay. This also shows children that you don't make any friends by being mean and that being nice to others makes you feel good about yourself. Another positive thing about this book is that it teaches children how to count, from ten to one and the from one to ten. Overall, this is a great book to read to kids who are starting school and it is a fun way to talk about and explain the consequences of bullying.
Read
January 24, 2013When Billy Bully arrives at the school playground, his animal friends are already there. Cow is enjoying a swing, horse is on the teeter totter and duck is on the slide. Within moments, Billy Bully has taken charge. He chases the others off the slide, grabs toys and he won’t wait his turn. One by one, he upsets each of his classmates and loses friends.
Eventually Billy Bully discovers that every one of his classmates has run away from him. There is no one to play with.
Now Billy Bully’s feeling blue,
Until – he figures out just what to do.
After counting down his friends, Billy sets to work repairing the harm he has done.
When Billy Bull learns how to play,
all his friends come back to stay.
Best suited to preschool or kindergarten age children, Billy Bully is a rhyming counting book with an important message about bullying and friendship. It includes an Afterword for parents and teachers by Ellen Jacobs, Ph.D., Clinical Social Work
Eventually Billy Bully discovers that every one of his classmates has run away from him. There is no one to play with.
Now Billy Bully’s feeling blue,
Until – he figures out just what to do.
After counting down his friends, Billy sets to work repairing the harm he has done.
When Billy Bull learns how to play,
all his friends come back to stay.
Best suited to preschool or kindergarten age children, Billy Bully is a rhyming counting book with an important message about bullying and friendship. It includes an Afterword for parents and teachers by Ellen Jacobs, Ph.D., Clinical Social Work
June 28, 2015
I really liked this book. It is about a bull called Billy who loses friends every time he does something mean and realizes when he has no more friends that people don't like bullies. He turns it around and starts doing nice things and gains his friends back. This is an excellent book to use when teaching young children about bullying. Children learn that it is not ok to be a bully and that you will not have any friends if you are a bully.
In the classroom, this is an excellent book to use during math. Children learn to count backwards from ten to one and then from one to ten. This book can be used to generate many math word problems. Students can use the different situations in which Billy is a bully and loses friends to create subtraction problems and the situations in which Billy is kind and gains friends to make up addition problems.
In the classroom, this is an excellent book to use during math. Children learn to count backwards from ten to one and then from one to ten. This book can be used to generate many math word problems. Students can use the different situations in which Billy is a bully and loses friends to create subtraction problems and the situations in which Billy is kind and gains friends to make up addition problems.
December 7, 2011
Billy Bully is mean to all of his friends. He starts out with ten friends, but is mean to every one of them until eventually he has no friends left. Then, when Billy Bully wants to play, everyone has run away and he is sad because he realizes how bad he has been. Billy Bully comes up with a plan. He decides he must do something nice to every one of his friends that he has bullied so they will play with him again. He is nice to each of them and again has ten friends. His name changes to Billy Bull when he learns how to play and all of his friends are his again. This book would be great to use if I was teaching about bullying. It is also a great counting book. He counts his friends at ten, then loses them, then gets them back-one by one.
July 10, 2015
Billy Bully: A School-Yard Counting Tale, makes me think about bullying in the school as a whole. It also makes me feel sad that we have to talk about this so early to the children, and nothing is sacred anymore. I guess I also feel it makes me think about the lessons that we can learn from the books that out there. I am a firm believer that once brought to the forefront by the teacher it will not happen in the classroom. At least this is what I hope can happen from getting an early start on the subject.
As this book that I have used Billy Bully: A School-Yard Counting Tale can be used in many ways. It can be used for literacy with vocabulary words and math for addition and subtraction. It can also be used as visually for those who are diverse thinkers and as vocabulary guide.
As this book that I have used Billy Bully: A School-Yard Counting Tale can be used in many ways. It can be used for literacy with vocabulary words and math for addition and subtraction. It can also be used as visually for those who are diverse thinkers and as vocabulary guide.
July 29, 2012
Billy Bully is a cross-curricular resource that allows students to count as mean Billy Bully loses all of his friends as he bullies them in various ways. Students then will count as Billy Bully regains all his friends when he chooses to be kind and inclusive! A great text for a classroom that is dealing with bullying, Billy Bully allows a classroom to discuss bullying in a safe way because of the non-threatening animal characters and comical situations.
November 4, 2016
I would read this book in my future classroom as a whole class reading if I saw kids in my classroom bullying each other. It is about Billy being mean and one-by-one he starts losing his friends until he no longer has any friends and he has to work to gain them all back. It is also a great book for counting!
April 23, 2010
Has a theme of bullies. It can also be used as a math book because it counts backwards from ten as Billy Bully's friends run away from him because he is mean and then it counts up to ten as he is nice to them and they become his friend. This book also rhymes.
January 9, 2011
Billy Bully is a counting book about a bull that is a bully. In the book he learns he should be nice to people so he has more friends. In the beginning he was being mean to his friends and they all started leaving and not playing with him. To win them back he had to be nice and help out.
March 19, 2011
Read this book to the kindergarten classes today. The kids enjoyed the easy rhymes and counting backward and forward. This book is a great book for learning what happens when you are mean to your friends and how to win your friends back. Great book for young children.
May 31, 2011
I think I would have liked this one more if it was either a counting book or a bully tale. I liked the bully part, but the counting thrown in there with it was a little too much. Love the characters and that Billy Bully learned about how to not bully, but just too much for this little book.
October 11, 2011
This is a great book to use to teach young kids about bullying. It is a nice way to incorperate bullying in the classroom, not drastically. It also uses numbers 1 through 10 which is great in incorperating math in reading lessons. This book also has ryhming words.
November 12, 2009
A good reminder for kids that their actions have consequences.
November 14, 2009
Want to know how to lose friends? Watch how Billy Bully loses them one at a time. (Het gets them back one at a time, too!) Great for younger children
May 1, 2010
Great book about bullying, friendship and counting. Cute pictures.
July 7, 2011
My kids loved this book.
November 26, 2011
Soooo many concepts in this book. This is good for talking about bullying, subtraction, addition, and rhyming! It also can be used to teach about how to treat others.
April 20, 2012
This is a cute book to read to kids at the primary level about bullying.
December 14, 2012
one of my favorite books i read this semester. teaches kids how to get along with others. very good illustrations. I would read this book to my class.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews