Two big, general observations

First, all-school reads are amazing. They really work—especially when the whole school is involved, not just the kids. The first person I met one morning last fall, when I was walking into Middlebury (Vt.) Union Middle School to start two great days there, was the head custodian. He shook my hand and said every single person in the school—custodial staff, cafeteria ladies, office personnel, everyone—had read The Revealers and joined in mixed, small-group discussions of it.

In my two days at MUMS, I realized how much that had meant. It had said to the kids that they are part of a community, not just consumers of a curriculum. And it said that bullying is something everyone in their school community was willing to join them in facing. Experts on the issue tell me it does not work to dump this issue on kids—that everyone in the school community has to engage it. Kids know this is not a kid-only issue; they know, often too well, that grownups can bully, too.

Second, working with this book does not have to be just an English project. Drama clubs have staged scenes from the book, or original extensions of the story. Social-studies classes have looked at bullying in history, and have continued the discussions begun by the social-studies class in The Revealers. Math classes have created, carried out, and reported on surveys of bullying behavior in their schools (often comparing their findings to the fictional survey results in The Revealers). Middle schoolers have used multimedia technologies to create, film, and share public-service "commercials" for the book and against bullying.

What these and many more examples tell me is this: The more that work with this story is integrated through the curriculum, the more students can integrate it into their own minds and lives.