Review of T-Bone's Traveling Circus by Janice Virant

Book Description

Defeat Bullying with Love, Laughter and Acceptance! In this imaginative sequel to "T-Bone the Flying Horse," meet Rita Bonita the young horse who is constantly the target of teasing and bullying. Her life is transformed in a wonderful way when she meets a girl and her colorful cast of misfit friends. The girl, inspired by her great friend T-Bone, has formed a circus to help the teased love themselves and stand up to bullying! Join Rita Bonita and her new circus friends as they share laughter and spark the imagination in this fantastical rhyming tale about love and acceptance.

About the Author

Janice Virant lives in Littleton, Colorado. She grew up on a farm in Chesterfield, Missouri. An avid horsewoman and animal lover, T-Bone and Rita Bonita are two adopted horses whose beauty and unconditional love inspired this story.

Product Details

• Paperback: 26 pages
• Publisher: Outskirts Press (January 7, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1478729619
• ISBN-13: 978-1478729617

Review

T-Bone's Traveling Circus is a story about how to defeat bullying with friendship, love, and laughter.

Rita Bonita becomes a victim of bullying, an all too common problem. Why do people bully you ask? It's hard to tell. Is it because of the power one gets when humiliating someone else? Though they are the ones who actually look like the fool. Is it because the person has bullying problems at home and so they extend that out to their own lives and pass it on? In this case Rita is being bullied because of her appearance. Her ears are rather large compared to other horses. 

Ones appearance can easily be a cause for bullying. Whether someone is fat, has large ears, big nose, funky colored hair, attitude, or someones tastes in clothes. Teasing somone about their appearance can be hurtful. Rita experiences this first hand. But instead of wallowing about it in self pity, she ends up meeting some friends who are as unique in appearance as she. These new friends teach her of acceptance. People may tease but if we accept ourselves for our differences than no bullies words can hurt you. You must be proud of who you are, that comes first. Everyone is different, that is what makes us unique, we are not the same, so how we look or the things we like makes us who we are. Should we change ourselves because we don't conform to what everyone else likes and does, that's crazy.  

Rita's friends talk to her about what makes them unique and she realizes that she is not alone. These new friends accept each other and become friends who can share what they have learned with others.

 

A quibble would be that these friends are called a traveling circus. This makes one think that they show off their uniqueness to others like a freak show. That is certainly not the case. These friends actually go around talking about bullying and more. The title can give a misinterpretation of what this story is about. T-Bone's traveling friends would send a better message.

Children of all ages will enjoy the fun characters and great message the author instills in this 26 page picture book. Friendship, love, and laughter are great ways to overcome bullying.