To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful

Canadian writer Koyczan’s spoken-word performance of this poem has more than 13 million views on YouTube. His passionate, implacable rejection of bullying describes the effect school violence has on the hearts and minds of its victims: “He is a stick of TNT lit from both ends.” But Koyczan (Stickboy) also offers hope for healing. “You built a cast around your/ broken heart,” he writes, “and signed it yourself/ you signed it/ ‘THEY WERE WRONG.’ ” Thirty-odd illustrators, some internationally known, contribute spreads to the project. Japanese painter Satoshi Kitamura’s two figures stand in agonized silence with their fists clenched; Peruvian artist Armin Greder draws a gaggle of jeering faces. Dongjun Lee, a Canadian artist, captures the freedom of a boy as he rises above a steely, squared-off academic building and floats away into the sky: “We are graduating members from the class of We Made It.” The variation of artistic styles and media from page to page, like a collection of different voices, makes it clear that if the culture of bullying is to be defeated, it will take a chorus of collaborators. Ages 11–up. (Sept.)