“If a cub gets beat up, that's usually when he/she vows to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
—Opening quote for The Berenstain Bears and the Bully
The Berenstain Bears and the Bully is a book in the Berenstain Bears series. It was published on October 19th, 1993.[1]
Summary
At Bear Country School, Sister gets beaten up by a female cub named Tuffy, who turns out to be a bully. With help from Brother, Sister learns about self-defense and standing up for herself.
Plot
One day, as Papa, Mama, and Brother were busy in their treehouse's front yard, Sister arrived crying with a scratched and dirty face with torn clothes. Mama thought Sister fell and Papa thought there was an accident, but Brother deduces that someone, specifically a bully, beat Sister up. Sister stopped crying enough to explain that a bully beat her up for no reason before she got angry and resumed crying.
After the family took Sister into the house, she starts to explain that while Sister, Lizzy, and Queenie were playing tag, a new cub named Tuffy stuck her foot out and tripped Sister. As Sister got up, she told Tuffy to watch where she puts her feet. Shortly after, Tuffy started beating Sister up and knocking her on her back, then sat on her chest and rubbed dirt in her face.
Furious, Papa prepared to get his hat to head over to the playground, but Mama pulls him aside and says that he'll do no such thing although Papa objects that something has to be done. Mama then asks Brother to get a wet washcloth for her, but she doesn't get a response. At the playground, Brother is looking for Tuffy as he wants to give her a "knuckle sandwich". When Lizzy points to the Boys' Room and the Girls' Room, Brother notices a girl cub coming out of the Girls' Room and his anger quickly subsides.
Brother learns that Tuffy is a girl much to his disbelief. Tuffy quickly learns that Brother is the older brother of Sister, who Tuffy refers to as "Little Miss Pink Hairbow". Brother wanted to fight back, but he realized that he couldn't hit girls and doing so would make him a bully. He then leaves with his hands in his pockets as Tuffy calls him a "chicken". On the way home, Brother swung by the Bear Country School gym and got a big bag. He then returned to his family's treehouse, dropped the bag into the cellar, then went into the front door.
As Brother enters, Mama tells him that she, Papa, and Sister had a family meeting. Mama suggests to Brother that he should keep an eye on Sister while she avoids Tuffy altogether. Brother and Sister agree to the idea, though the latter gets heated and wanted to punch Tuffy's nose through her face, kick her shin, and knock her down as Mama cuts her off. Brother feels relieved that he and Sister are on the same wavelength. Before dinner that night, Brother gives Sister a note saying to meet him in the cellar at seven o'clock.
There, Sister found a big bag of dried beans with a drawing of Tuffy's face next to the big bag Brother brought home from school. He also had a book titled The Art of Self-Defense. Sister walked toward the bag of beans and gave it a good punch. Brother then took the big bag he had in his hand and dumped out two pairs of boxing gloves, which he got from Mr. Grizzmeyer after he told him that he had a friend who was having trouble with a bully. Sister liked the idea and both she and Brother put the pairs of gloves on. Sister quickly proves that she is skilled at self-defense, as she hits brother with a jab, cross, hook, and an uppercut. She also proved to be good at ducking, then punched the bag of dried beans, destroying it in the process.
On Monday morning, as Brother packed the boxing gloves and the book back in the big bag, he reminds Sister that she still has to avoid Tuffy, and she still feels where Tuffy hit her on her jaw. Throughout the week, Sister avoided Tuffy on both Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday, Sister saw Tuffy throwing rocks at a baby bird who wasn't able to fly yet. Sister orders Tuffy to stop, and Tuffy declares that instead of hurting the bird, she would hurt Sister.
Tuffy charges at Sister and throws a hard right punch, but Sister quickly dodges and hits Tuffy square on her nose with a right cross, causing Tuffy to fall on her rear with a bloody nose. One of the recess teachers who witnessed the fight took both Sister and Tuffy into the school where they sat on the principal's discipline bench. Outside Mr. Honeycomb's office, Sister looks at Tuffy as she started crying. Tuffy tells her that if Mr. Honeycomb tells her parents about this, she won't be able to sit down for a long time. This made Sister think that Tuffy was being hit a lot at home and attributes that to why Tuffy likes to hit other cubs at school. Sister didn't think about that for too long, as she was worried about what was going to happen to her since Mr. Honeycomb was strict on fighting.
One of the recess teachers who saw the fight told Mr. Honeycomb that Sister was just protecting the baby bird. Sister was let off with a warning. Tuffy, despite not having her parents called, had recess detention for a week and was ordered to visit the school psychologist for quite a while.
Cast
- Papa Bear
- Mama Bear
- Brother Bear
- Sister Bear
- Elizabeth ("Lizzy") Bruin
- Queenie McBear
- Mr. Honeycomb (mention)
- Tuffy
- Mr. Grizzmeyer (mentioned)