Mean Max by John Peterson and Syd Hoff

An interesting retro read on dealing with bullying. In the picture book Mean Max by John Peterson, first published in 1970, Toby struggles to deal with the ongoing bullying he receives at the hands of Max who lives close by and attends the same school. Tony's best friend, Eddy, is more undermining than helpful and Tony ends up becoming a bully himself. Build up your muscles and train to run fast are the main pieces of advice in this little book as well as learning to stand up for yourself. Certainly an unusual addition to the Little Library of Rescued Books and also smelliest book in the collection. This book was originally called Mean Max Chickens Out. Read it and smell it for yourself and you decided how helpful this book could be. What mainly drew me to buying this book for the grand sum of twenty cents was the illustrations by cartoonist Syd Hoff as I have a lot of respect and admiration for his work. Sadly for us he is no longer around to create, but you can appreciate his works at:

http://www.sydhoff.org/