Bullying

The Gifts of Imperfection

Brené Brown · 2010

Brown’s research is on shame and worthiness, and this is her most tender, practical book about them. Bullying works by making you feel you are somehow not enough; Brown quietly dismantles that lie, showing that belonging and worth are not things you earn by being liked, but things you already hold. A steadying read for rebuilding the self-belief that bullying wears down.

Boundary Boss

Terri Cole · 2021

For the aftermath, when you need to rebuild the fences that were trampled. Cole is a psychotherapist, and her book is a clear, warm guide to noticing where your limits are and learning to voice them without guilt — especially useful for anyone who learned, under pressure, to make themselves small or silent to stay safe.

The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga · 2013

Written as a dialogue between a philosopher and a young man, this bestseller draws on Adlerian psychology to make a liberating case: that your worth does not depend on being approved of, and that other people’s judgments are, in the end, their business and not yours. Bracing company for anyone worn down by the need to be liked by people determined not to like them.

Odd Girl Out

Rachel Simmons · 2002

Simmons names the quieter, more social forms of bullying — exclusion, rumour, the sudden withdrawal of friendship — that so often go unseen because they leave no bruises. Clarifying and validating for anyone who was told they were ‘imagining it’, and essential reading for a parent trying to understand what a child cannot always put into words.

Eleanor & Park

Rainbow Rowell · 2013

A tender young-adult novel about two teenagers who don’t fit in, bullied in different ways, who become each other’s small, fierce refuge. For younger readers especially, it offers the rare comfort of seeing your own experience on the page — and the reminder that being an outsider is not the end of the story.

Wonder

R. J. Palacio · 2012

The story of Auggie, a boy with a facial difference starting school, and the cruelty and kindness he meets there. Written for younger readers but quietly profound at any age, it shifts the lens onto empathy without ever preaching. A good one to read alongside a child, or on your own when you need proof that kindness is still a choice people make.