The Effects of Bullying

The victim and society as a whole feel the negative effects of bullying. This novel is set in Japan in the 1990s when bullying was a chronic problem that was rarely addressed in that country.

The narrator is an unnamed male teen nicknamed Eyes. Eyes is bullied because he has a "lazy eye." He befriends a girl named Kojima, who is also a victim of bullies. The two are often hit, pushed, and humiliated as a normal part of their day. One day, a group of boys places a volleyball over Eyes' head and instructs him to “act” like a soccer ball. When one of the boys kicks him, Eyes falls to the floor, bashing his face so that he loses a lot of blood.

Eyes hears about a boy who was bullied to the point that he committed suicide, and Eyes thinks...