B.U.G. (Big Ugly Guy) by Jane Yolen (review)

Life gets a little bit better for perpetual bully target Sammy Greenburg when he finally makes his first friend in eighth grade. Skinner John Williams, aka Skink, is pretty awesome, silencing Sammy's bullies with a single karate chop to a lunch table, introducing Sammy to the girl of his dreams, and even agreeing to start up a Klezmer fusion garage band after Sammy introduces Skink to the unique combination of jazz and Jewish folk music. When the bullies beat up Skink, however, Sammy decides enough is enough, and, using a formula he finds in his rabbi's study, he creates a golem to take vengeance on his enemies—and fill the missing drummer spot in his new band. Predictably, the golem gets out of hand, and Sammy inevitably realizes the important lesson that violence only begets more violence. The efforts of Yolen and Stemple to contextualize middle-school bullying within a larger tradition of oppression is an interesting, if somewhat variably successful, tactic. The inclusion of Sammy's struggles with his faith and its traditions as well as Skink's being the only black kid in a small, mostly white Midwestern town reminds readers that bullying is not something that happens only in the hallways of schools; however, several direct comparisons between Sammy's quandary and the historical systematic oppression of Jewish people in general take the parallels too far and only succeed in trivializing both. Nonetheless, both Sammy and Skink are likable guys, and the relationship that develops out of their shared statuses as outcasts as well as their love for music is endearing and funny. The hilariously over-the-top ending is either a brilliant parody of an afterschool special or an overly earnest attempt at empowerment; either way, readers will close the book with a smile, albeit for perhaps different reasons.