The Meanest Thing To Say is not about saying mean things back to mean people. And it isn't even about mean people. What it IS about is children learning self-control, level-headedness and heart. When the new kid, Michael, calls Little Bill names, and says he has to think of the meanest things to say back the next day, Bill is frustrated and anxious. This comes up at home and his dad tells him to just say, "So?" to everything. Little Bill does this and it halts Michael. It takes two people to fight. But the moral of the story doesn't stop here. Bill observes Michael is a new student and maybe just needs a friend. So he invites him to play basketball with him and they become friends.

Unfortunately it is reality that children can be very mean and hurtful. As parents, we need to teach our children how to handle bullies and it's equally as important to teach them not to BE a bully. Also, just ignoring mean actions and words doesn't always work. Everyone has good in them and we all, ages 2-102 need to offer kindness instead of anger. Great job, Cosby! Thank you and please keep writing. Peace & Soar!o8E

The Meanest Thing To Say is not about saying mean things back to mean people. And it isn't even about mean people. What it IS about is children learning self-control, level-headedness and heart. When the new kid, Michael, calls Little Bill names, and says he has to think of the meanest things to say back the next day, Bill is frustrated and anxious. This comes up at home and his dad tells him to just say, "So?" to everything. Little Bill does this and it halts Michael. It takes two people to fight. But the moral of the story doesn't stop here. Bill observes Michael is a new student and maybe just needs a friend. So he invites him to play basketball with him and they become friends.

Unfortunately it is reality that children can be very mean and hurtful. As parents, we need to teach our children how to handle bullies and it's equally as important to teach them not to BE a bully. Also, just ignoring mean actions and words doesn't always work. Everyone has good in them and we all, ages 2-102 need to offer kindness instead of anger. Great job, Cosby! Thank you and please keep writing. Peace & Soar!o8E

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT LEARNING TOOL. IT IS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT AND I AM SURE IT WILL BE READ AND EACH CHILD WILL LEARN FROM IT!

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT LEARNING TOOL. IT IS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT AND I AM SURE IT WILL BE READ AND EACH CHILD WILL LEARN FROM IT!

I just got this book yesterday for my son who just turned 3 years old. He really enjoyed it and after reading it, he kept asking me to read it over. He was very interested because he started asking questions at the end. He just started preschool and I wanted to introduce him to possible situations he might go through while in school. This story gives a great lesson on how to handle a situation when someone says something mean to you. My son also enjoyed it because the situation takes place in school and at a basketball court, which he can relate to because he started school and he loves to play basketball.

I just got this book yesterday for my son who just turned 3 years old. He really enjoyed it and after reading it, he kept asking me to read it over. He was very interested because he started asking questions at the end. He just started preschool and I wanted to introduce him to possible situations he might go through while in school. This story gives a great lesson on how to handle a situation when someone says something mean to you. My son also enjoyed it because the situation takes place in school and at a basketball court, which he can relate to because he started school and he loves to play basketball.

I was looking for a book to help my 9 year-old deal with other kids who say cruel and demeaning things. My son and I sat down and read the book together and then discussed how saying "so" when mean things are said takes away the bullies power. We decided that "so" was his new secret weapon.

My son was so excited when the very next day at school he used his secret weapon and it worked. He has also shared the book with a few of his classmates and it has helped them too.

GREAT BOOK!

An excellent message and a good chapter book for those readers who are starting to gain confidence.

I like this book because it's like my cousin and me. My favorite part is when the dad is saying, "So, so, soooo?"
I really like this book. This book is worth buying. This book is better than buying a 99 cent candy at the store.

As soon as you see that the title of this Little Bill Book for Beginning Readers by Bill Cosby is "The Meanest Thing to Say," I am sure you start to think of what would be the meanest thing you could say to somebody. Young readers will probably do the same thing, but I think older readers might have an advantage on coming up with really mean things to say. However, the important thing is that I serious doubt that any of us, regardless of our age and/or experience with saying mean things, will come up with the same thing that Cosby does in this story.

The situation is that there is a new boy in Little Bill's class named Michael Reilly. During recess when Little Bill and his friends start to play basketball Michael comes over and announces that he knows a better came. It is called Playing the Dozens and the idea is that you get twelve chances to say something mean to a person and whoever says the meanest thing wins. Jose and Andrew start playing the game, coming up with mean things to say about each other, and then Michael turns to little bill and says, "You shoot like a girl." But then the bell rings and Little Bill has until the next day to thing up the meanest possible thing to say back to Michael.

As Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint the Harvard Clinical Professor of Psychiatry explains in his letter to parents at the start of this book, sooner or later most children are going to meet other children who are deliberately mean. In that situation kids can either fight back to try to retreat. But in this book Cosby offers an alternative course of action that keeps the situation from escalating to something bad. Poussaint points out that this tactic might not always be practical, but the key thing here is that Cosby shows young readers that there are creative way to resolve conflicts with other children that do not involve losing face or resorting to violence. In these books, which he always dedicates to his son Ennis, Cosby has found a perfect way of combining his storytelling skills and his interest in educating.

There are a couple of other things I really liked about this book, which is illustrated by Varnette P. Honeywood. The first is that it is essentially about trash talking, which has become an epidemic in sports and something that I can live without. Being witty is one thing, but meaning mean is another (shooting off your mouth in a basketball game does not get you any points). The other is that in this particular book Big Bill is the one that comes up with the solution. Usually it is Alice the Great or some other member of the family that seems to be coming up with the necessary wisdom in these stories, so it was nice to know that Big Bill can do more than say the wrong thing and have his wife give him a funny look.

Little Bill is faced with a dilemma. Michael, a new kid at school, has invented a new game called "Playing the Dozens". The winner of the game is the person who can say the meanest things about others. Little Bill does not like the game and finds a unique way to play without hurting others.

Young children can relate to the message of this story and its colorful illustrations. The book instills morals, values, and teaches the lesson that saying mean things and name-calling can hurt others. The story also presents an excellent way kids can cope with being called names in addition to showing how to amicably deal with a bully.

I discovered this book when seeking children's books about dealing with bullies. I was very pleased with this book. I especially like how Little Bill's father demonstrated a clever way to handle the bully by simply saying "So?" to anything he said.

With recent disturbing events of school shootings, it's important for parents to teach their chilren peaceful alternatives in dealing with bullies. Mr. Cosby's story is a fairly normal and benign story of a school yard bully, but his solution is clever and non-violent.

Unfortunately, I recently came across The Meanest Thing to Say in an African-American bookstore. Once I read it to my 4 and 5 year old they enjoyed it. I feel in this book you handled a bully situation well. Most people as we know generally tease and bully because of things lacking within themselves, simple jealousy, or for attention. It definitely helped my little girl. Thanks Bill and Varnette. Keep up the good work.

I would like to thank Bill and Varnette for the great work they have done. My son was having problems reading until we bought this book at a Book Fair. My son is 8 years old and loves reading know thanks to the wonderful job that Mr. Bill Cosby has done. Also he was having problems with teasing at school. But know he realize that teasing someone is very mean and that is can hurt them in the long run. Once again I would like to thank Bill and Varnette for the wondeful job they are doing. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

This is getting a bit depressing. Sure kids need to be taught how to handle certain situations especially bullying and teasing but this is not the way to do it. Mr Cosby's story only survives once again because of Miss Honeywood's excellent illustrations. A good example of worthwhile material ruined by poor storytelling.

MY SON WANTS THIS STORY READ TO HIM EVERY NIGHT....AND HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT TO SAY WHEN HE IS TOLD SOMETHING MEAN...SO, I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR KIDS AND ADULTS!

This is a good book. It's pretty and fun and helps kids learn how to respond to mocking.