The Truth About Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler

What would you do if everyone from your school had access to a website that
posted all mean stuff about you and it suddenly got way too out of hand? Would you go
to school acting like nothing happened? Would you confront an adult? Or would you run
away to a place where nobody would find you?
In The Truth About Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler, Zebby and Amr set
up a website that is meant to be for a school newspaper. Its all good until someone with
the user name of milkandhoney starts putting nasty stuff about Lilly for all to see. Lilly
sees all of this cruel stuff about her and is so embarrassed she doesn’t know what to
do. Her mother sees her acting strange lately and frequently asks her whats wrong, but
Lilly just keeps it to herself. One day Lilly decides that she is completely done with this
nonsense so when her mom thinks shes at school.....She runs away. The search is on
to find Lilly. Where did she go? Read this fantastic book to find out if they find her at all
or if the search is still on to find Lilly at the end of the book.
The recommended reading age is recommended for grades 5th through 8th. This
book has not won any awards, although it should have! Another book by Dori Hillestad
Butler is Trading Places with Tank Talbott. If you have read Do you know the Monkey
Man, I’m sure that you will love this book because they both have the same author!
Dori Hillestad Butler is a great author. What I really like about her is that she
always left me sitting at the end of my seat. This books chapters were organized by
characters. I usually get confused with book like this, but this author did a great job of
making each character change clear to me. My favorite character in this book was Lilly.
She had to put up with a lot of stuff that she shouldn’t have had to put up with. She was
really brave throughout the book dealing with all of the bullying.
A quote from the book that I really liked was when Lilly’s mom called Zebby and
panicking asked, “Have you seen Lilly today.” I liked this because it shows how much
her mom cares for her. Booklist says, “Particularly timely and relevant.” Kirkus Reviews
says, “A realistic portrayal of the negative influence of bullying, cliques, and peer
pressure as they might affect tweens inside and outside the online world.” This thought-
provoking read is sure to initiate discussion.—Bethany A. Lafferty, Las Vegas-Clark
County Library, NV
I recommend this book to everyone because it comes from the views of both boys and
girls!

Recommended by Brooke Kluesner