"The Bullybuster" by Clay Cormany

It began with Trevor Newsome being pushed down a stairwell at school. He was a notorious bully and had been terrorizing others at the school for quite some time. Then Colt Miller, another bully, was attacked and his nose broken in the boys bathroom. Each of them claimed to have been attacked by a robot, though their descriptions of their attackers didn’t match. Nor was any robot found anywhere nearby, so where was this mysterious device? And despite a thorough search of the school, how was no such robot found? And most importantly… who had built it and who was using it to attack the school bullies?

This was a very interesting young adult tale that dealt with high school bullying in a very realistic manner. It was also an entertaining mystery as the main character Owen needs to help his aunt, the school’s new principal, find the robot and those responsible for using it to attack other students before anyone else is hurt or possibly killed in a future attack.

This tale showed how often bullying goes unreported by both the victims as well as witnesses for many reasons. It also shows what can happen when those being bullied have had to deal with more than anyone should have to deal with on a daily basis. The results can cause devastating issues that the victims must often face every day for the rest of their lives.

What happens when the victims of extreme or repeated bullying stand up to or seek revenge against their tormentors? This book shows one very real possibility of what could happen. Given how quickly robotics are becoming a part of our everyday lives, I could easily see high school students, and possibly even middle school students, being capable of building a “bullybuster” to help solve their problems with school bullies.

I found this a well-written story, though the book did have a few issues of extra spaces appearing in the middle of words here & there. It caught and held my interest throughout the book. I would definitely recommend reading this story to anyone. So many kids in school are bullied every day and whether the reader was or wasn’t a victim or a bully in school, I believe they will still find it worth their time to read. Recommended.