Book Review: Better Than You | By: Committee for Children Better Than You by Trudy Ludwig. Illustrated by Adam Gustavson.Reading Level: Grades 1–5 No matter what Tyler does, his neighbor Jake always has to one-up him. Tyler works hard to master a basketball move, but all Jake says is, “Yeah, well, I bet you can’t do this….” When Tyler is excited about his new music player, Jake tells him why he should have gotten the kind he has. Pretty soon, Tyler is feeling pretty down about himself. Luckily, his Uncle Kevin shows up with a funny but right-on metaphor for people who are arrogant: They are like pufferfish. “It’s a way of protecting themselves from potential enemies…. But when a kid acts like a pufferfish, he takes up so much space that he can also push away friends.” Talking About Arrogance with Author Trudy Ludwig In a recent conversation with Committee for Children, Better Than You author Trudy Ludwig described a worrying trend among elementary-aged kids: “Teachers and school counselors tell me that they’ve noticed an increase in displays of arrogant attitudes and boastfulness among kids,” she said. She agreed with parenting expert Michele Borba (who wrote the foreword to Better Than You) that this attitude may be related to our culture’s competitive, materialistic, and “praise-aholic” tendencies. “It’s as if children’s sense of self-worth is contingent upon their accomplishments or comparing their achievements and possessions with others,” Ludwig said. When asked why the story does not feature a “pat” ending where everything works out for Tyler and Jake, Ludwig explained: “The reality for kids at school and in the neighborhood is that they are going to encounter peers who don’t or won’t be able to stop their hurtful behaviors unless they get the help they need from the caring adults in their world. Kids can’t always control others’ behaviors and attitudes in life, but they sure can make choices about their own behaviors and who they choose to hang out with.” Ludwig looks at the issue from Jake’s perspective, too: “Perhaps in time Jake realizes how his arrogant behavior has not only hurt those around him, but also himself. The ending gives young readers an opportunity to discuss this possibility and play out what that would look like.” In her many books for children about friendship (My Secret Bully, Confessions of a Former Bully, Trouble Talk, and more), Ludwig gives her characters authentic, realistic voices to help young readers see how these characters’ choices play out in the story. “We all make mistakes,” she says. “The important thing is to learn from our mistakes so that we don’t keep repeating them. We also need to take responsibility for our mistakes and make up for the hurt we’ve caused others.” Social-Emotional Lessons in Better Than You Ludwig believes it’s important for children to understand the difference between helpful and hurtful friendships, “so that they’re more likely to gravitate to kids who can accept all the goodness they have to offer and give it back in kind.” After reading Better Than You in the classroom, teachers and students can discuss how to know when it’s worthwhile to work on a friendship to make it better, and when it’s time to extricate oneself from relationships that are not healthy.