Pingo and the Playground Bully

This book is fabulous!! I love that it teaches imagination, friendship, finding the good in everyone, and not trying to one up other people. Wonderful pictures, and a great book with life lessons!! Brandon Mull is an incredible author, and Brandon Dorman is an amazing artist!

Super cute book! Great condition! Highly recommended!

Great price, fast shipping AA+

Pingo is a leprechaun who is made up by a kid named Chad. His classmates have other imaginary friends. They all go on adventures together. One of the kids, named Jeremy, has an imaginary friend named Grunt and they are bullies at first so the other kids have to hide from them. One day, the kids are trying to prove who the best imaginary friend is. To see who is best, they plan a competition. Pingo comes in second at every competition. Each of the other imaginary friends wins once. Then Grunt is upset that he wasn't in the competition. So Pingo offers to have a competition the next week with Grunt. Pingo asks Jeremy and Grunt to join in a pretend adventure down the Amazon River. Jeremy and Grunt agree to play with the other kids and imaginary friends. They go get the supplies and join the others on an adventure! Everyone cheers for Pingo and say that he is the best. Pingo tells them that everyone is good at different things. He knows that it's good to have fun on games instead of just trying to win. They were all best friends forever and went on lots of adventures together.I give this book a four star rating. I loved the content and the message, but some of the pictures scared me. I do think that every kid should read this book because it teaches important lessons about friendship and sportsmanship. My favorite part was when Pingo tells all of the classmates that everyone is good at something different. It's important for kids to know that so that they focus on the fun of the games they play since fun is all that matters when playing games. This book teaches that kids should be good friends to each other and not compare themselves to others.Review by Hayden S., age 5, Southeast Michigan Mensa

There are a lot of books being published about bullying and the effects of it. What I loved about this one is the imagination involved and the extra twist involving thinking one is better than someone else and how that can lead to a different kind of bullying, even among friends. Chad and his imaginary friend, Pingo, spend recess playing with their friends, Gary, Tiffany, and Dustin along with their imaginary friends. They avoid Jeremy though and his imaginary friend, Grunt, because he bullies them. One day though they get into a contest about which imaginary friend is better. I loved that Pingo points out that this is silly because each of them has things that they do especially well. I especially liked the fact that when Jeremy and Grunt step up to bully the kids and their friends, instead of fighting back or getting defensive, Pingo steps up and invites Jeremy and Grunt to play with them. In addition to liking the story line, I loved Brandon Dorman's illustrations, they are so bright and colorful and imaginative, they create a lot of things to talk about when sharing the book.

Chad and his imaginary friend Pingo are now in the second grade and things are heating up on the playground. It's a battle of the fittest, smartest and toughest imaginary friend--a competition to prove who is best. And poor Pingo keeps coming in second. He's not a fan of competition which only proves who is best at certain things. Plus the kids and their imaginaries have a problem on their hands with the bully Grunt and his keeper Jeremy.Pingo steps in to save the day in his own unique way. I loved this book with its message on friendship and bullying. It is perfect for young children to learn how to act before they hit the second grade. It would be a wonderful read aloud in pre school-first grade. The illustrations are incredible! I loved book one and I'm a fan of book two. Once again five stars to Pingo.

I was so excited to review this new picture book from author Brandon Mull. This is his second book in this children's picture book series. I also was happy to have another book about being friends and not bullying. I teach second grade and this book is about second graders. The illustrations are so bright and colorful, done by Brandon Dorman. The story is so engaging as it starts by talking about the children and their imaginary friends playing on the playground. They are having fun until the playground bully threatens their fun. Then the story turns into a great lesson about kindness and how to include all children in their game. This is such a great message. Every day I hear about how someone was left out of a game and feelings were hurt. This is a story that will be read often in my classroom.The publisher has kindly sent me a copy to give away to one of my readers. (USA only)[...]

This story was educational and delightful. Have you ever felt left out? I'm sure everyone has a story to share. I definitely do so I enjoyed this story about the power of kindness and the importance of always including others. It is super important to teach our children about showing kindness to others especially in this day of age. The illustrations by Brandon Dorman were marvelous. His illustrations were colorful and delightful. I felt like I was on the playground with my imaginary buddy. Brandon Mull wrote this fun story and it doesn't surprise me that he is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Fablehaven series as well as the Beyonders series. Pingo definitely saves the day in this extraordinary story. Loved!!!