Release
Date: September 23, 2014
Publisher:
Annick Press
ISBN:
9781554516391
e-ARC Source: Netgalley
I remember first hearing about “To
This Day” in February of last year. One of my colleagues e-mailed a link to the
YouTube video of the animated spoken word poem. I immediately fell in love. The
next day, I showed all three of my high school English classes the video. After
a few tears and a lot of discussion, I left school feeling like a rock star.
But I can’t take credit. I exposed my students to Koyczan’s empowering verse, yes,
but there are many teachers who show their students various avenues of
literature. Without his impetus to reach out to thousands of bullied teens, the
video would have never been made, and some of my students would still be
struggling with self-esteem and silence.
If the words themselves weren’t
enough, thirty artists have come together to illustrate the poem, giving
realistic portrayals of the lives of those who are bullied every day. For those
who have experienced the same types of bullying situations as Koyczan himself
as a child, the words and illustrations will resonate and hopefully heal the
wounds caused by others. For those who have been lucky enough to escape
bullying, the call to action to end bullying should be enough to want to reach out and help those who
are suffering, to step in when bullying is evident. And for the bully, one can
only image the situation that he/she must be involved in to hurt someone else.
Perhaps this poem can reach out to all three individuals and end bullying
forever.
Not only does the book have breathtaking poem
and illustrations, but Koyczan goes a step further when a preface and an
afterward as well as resources for those who need help.
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