Grumble Bluff
Karen Bessey Pease
Eloquent Books

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Karen Bessey Pease’s „Grumble Bluff“, takes us to the top of a ravine where the speaker stands on the bank of mid Maine’s Grumble Brook. She is a fat girl – her words-, it is a quarter to five, and supper is at 5:30 sharp.

She says she has no friends. She used to, or she thought she did, that was before her school began bussing her class, 6th grade, to a campus twenty miles away and she had to start making friends all over again. All her old friends began shunning her, it was horrible, kids who had always ignored her weight, joined the others to make fun of her.

And then one day, Katherine Anne Kirby was shocked to hear mocking voices that were not directed at her. When Katherine, Kathy, steps into the fracas the crowd melts away and she and Greta Rommel are left standing together in the hall. Kathy is shocked to realize that Greta is not overweight, she is downright thin, and she is pretty. So why are the kids picking on her too?

Prime targets for the bullies and dweebs who people the halls at school; Greta’s dad is dying of AIDS and Kathy is fat. From that beginning the tale follows the two girls as they face together the gremlins who are bullies, to deal with the loneliness each is experiencing, in addition to learning to cope with the intolerance exhibited by those who have little understanding of AIDS, and filled with misunderstanding, have little desire to change their thinking, and dealing with loss of connection with out of touch parents.

The budding friendship the girls share helps both on their road to maturity which includes ever-increasing understanding, coping with loss and death, and just growing up. The pair sit together on „Grumble Bluff“ where they can chat, and giggle and muddle through both gloom and pleasure of becoming adults in a time and place where their being different is tantamount to having the plague or worse.

At best the tween years of 11 – 14 are laden with so many racing emotions, it is a troubling time for kids, and to spend those years as the butt of bullying jokes and revulsion only compounds the everyday dilemmas faced by all tweens.

Too old to be little kids and cry and fuss, not grown up enough yet to appreciate that bullies actually have little self-assurance and often try to make themselves feel better by trampling the feelings of others, Kathy and Greta do become skilled at dealing with their emotions, the bullies and school work, in constructive and rewarding manner while forging a closeness which can follow them throughout their adult years.

Through their friendship, the pair gain greater ability to shake off the maltreatment of the bullies and learn to trust one another and themselves. Kathy and Greta experience individually empowering successes which lead to confirmation of their own worth and liberation via their reciprocal contributions to the other's happiness.

It is in the course of their increasing camaraderie that the girls are able to face down the bullies, survive loss and self depredation and take back their daring and wittiness.

Loneliness weighs heavily any time, tweens in particular seem more defenseless and ill prepared to manage authentic or imagined sentiment of being without help, singled out or alone. To build a friendship is significant at any age, gaining friendship during the tween years as do Greta and Kathy is doubly important.

With dynamism and verve, in concert, the girls learn to face whatever life has to throw their way.

„Grumble Bluff“ presents the account of affection and loss, camaraderie and family ties, all placed against a back drop of the, at times, horrifying desolation felt as an outcome of bullying. Following the emotional and social maturation of Kathy and Greta as the pair grow into empathetic and grounded teens filled with optimism and understanding produces a warm and satisfying read.

That Writer Pease is an accomplished writer proficient for producing intensely eloquent imagery is evident as the reader treks through the fragrant woods along with Kathy and Greta to sit with them and listen to the splashing of the brook.

Bullying at any age is thorny to face, is tricky to have to cope with, and when it takes place in school especially during those particularly at risk tween years, kids can be cut so acutely and psychologically that it becomes most difficult to salvage trust in others, to take back trust in self or to appreciate that the bullied are not the ones with the larger problem.

Addressing those hard to face issues inherent to just growing up which kids must deal as they mature; „Grumble Bluff“ helps tweens understand that there can be hope and life can be better.

„Grumble Bluff“ is a work for the counselor’s shelf, parents and kids to read together and classroom. I plan to take my review copy and give to our school library where it can be available to our middle grade and older students to use.

Happy to recommend Karen Bessey Pease’s „Grumble Bluff“.