What your child practises
Recognising that something isn’t right and telling an adult I trust; standing up for someone else if it’s safe. Asking for help isn’t telling tales.
At first the hero says nothing, then goes to an adult they trust — and the adult in the story acts. Bullying is never shown as “a fight between two”, and nobody is pushed into making up. At the end the hero says who they would tell at home or at school.
Five steps your child practises
Recognise what isn’t OK
When something keeps happening, hurts, or gives me a bad feeling in my tummy.
Asking for help isn’t telling tales
Telling tales = I want someone to get into trouble. Asking for help = I want someone to be safe.
My safe adults
At least three people I can tell: at home, at school and one more.
Say it clearly
What happened, who, where and when. “At break time, a boy takes my snack and pushes me.”
If it doesn’t help, tell someone else
If the first adult doesn’t help, try another one. Don’t give up.
How the story shows it
In the kingdom, someone keeps making fun of a small creature. At first the hero stays silent — then finds the courage to go to an adult. We never show bullying as “an argument between two sides”, and we never make anyone make up.
- 1 · Discover
The hero sees someone making fun of a little fox. They say nothing because they don’t want to “tell tales”. A mentor shows them the difference.
- 2 · Try
Your child picks the hero’s safe adults and works out exactly what to say. The hero goes to the first one.
- 3 · Teach
The first adult has no time — the hero tries a second one. Then the hero shows a friend how to do it.
The last page: the hero tells the teacher what’s happening at break times — briefly and clearly.
If your child is being bullied: what to do straight away
- Listen, believe them and tell them they did the right thing by telling you.
- Write down what happened, when and where — without interrogating your child.
- Contact the class teacher or the school leadership, and agree on concrete steps.
- Don’t confront other children or their parents without a plan.
- Get advice: child helpline 116 111 (Slovakia, Czechia, Germany, Poland, Hungary); in the UK, Childline 0800 1111 or the NSPCC helpline for adults 0808 800 5000. In an emergency, call 112 (UK: 999).
By age
- Development
- Bullying is too complex a topic at this age; the rule “when something hurts or scares me, I tell an adult” is enough.
- In the story
- A simple “When something hurts or I’m scared, I tell Mum, Dad or my teacher.”
- Development
- A strong sense of fairness and rules; it helps to tell the difference between telling tales and getting help. If a child is being bullied, an adult deals with it. Turiel 1983
- In the story
- The difference between telling tales and asking for help; a list of safe adults.
- Development
- The group is key and every child has a role in it; whole-group programmes (KiVa) were studied in exactly grades 4–6. Salmivalli et al. 1996; Kärnä et al. 2011
- In the story
- Bullying in friendship groups and chats; standing up for someone if it is safe, and always telling an adult.
- Development
- Extremely sensitive to how others see them; online hurt becomes more common. Confidential ways to tell someone help. Somerville 2013
- In the story
- Peer pressure, online harm; how to tell someone in confidence and where to call.
What we base this on
The approach
Bystanders are key: when peers step in safely (fetch an adult, lead the target away, refuse to join in), bullying often stops, and prevention programmes make children more willing to step in. But adults always carry the responsibility for sorting it out.
The rating is about the approach, not about our comic — the comic itself has not yet been scientifically tested.
What the research says
Observations in school playgrounds found peers present in 88% of bullying episodes; they intervened in 19% of them, and 57% of interventions stopped the bullying.
School programmes increased bystanders’ willingness to intervene (g = 0.20; 0.14 for younger children); an effect on empathy was not established.
Bullying is a group process: besides the child who hurts and the target, there are roles for those who join in, cheer on, watch, or defend.
The KiVa programme, which works with the whole group, had an effect on 7 of 11 outcomes in grades 4–6 in Finland; outside Finland results are mixed (no proven effect in Wales, an effect in the Netherlands).
Automatic “zero tolerance” punishments are not supported by the data — so in our stories it’s not a punishment that resolves bullying, but an adult who acts.
What we don’t promise on this topic
That the comic will stop or detect bullying. School programmes reduce it modestly and not equally everywhere; solving it is a job for adults.
Key sources
- Hawkins, D. L., Pepler, D. J., & Craig, W. M. (2001). Naturalistic observations of peer interventions in bullying. Social Development, 10(4), 512–527. doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00178 abstract
- Polanin, J. R., Espelage, D. L., & Pigott, T. D. (2012). A meta-analysis of school-based bullying prevention programs' effects on bystander intervention behavior. School Psychology Review, 41(1), 47–65. doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2012.12087375 abstract
- Salmivalli, C., Lagerspetz, K., Björkqvist, K., Österman, K., & Kaukiainen, A. (1996). Bullying as a group process: Participant roles and their relations to social status within the group. Aggressive Behavior, 22(1), 1–15. doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(1996)22:1<1::AID-AB1>3.0.CO;2-T metadata
- Kärnä, A., Voeten, M., Little, T. D., Poskiparta, E., Kaljonen, A., & Salmivalli, C. (2011). A large-scale evaluation of the KiVa antibullying program: Grades 4–6. Child Development, 82(1), 311–330. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01557.x abstract
- Olweus, D. (2013). School bullying: Development and some important challenges. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 751–780. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185516 abstract
- APA Zero Tolerance Task Force (2008). Are zero tolerance policies effective in the schools? An evidentiary review and recommendations. American Psychologist, 63(9), 852–862. doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.63.9.852 abstract
- Axford, N., et al. (2020). The effectiveness of the KiVa bullying prevention program in Wales, UK. Prevention Science, 21(5), 615–626. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01103-9 abstract
- Huitsing, G., et al. (2020). A large-scale replication of the effectiveness of the KiVa antibullying program: An RCT in the Netherlands. Prevention Science, 21(5), 627–638. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01116-4 abstract
- Turiel, E. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge University Press. metadata
- Somerville, L. H. (2013). The teenage brain: Sensitivity to social evaluation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(2), 121–127. doi.org/10.1177/0963721413476512 metadata
- abstract abstract or full text read
- metadata bibliographic details verified
- institution official institutional document
Who prepared this and when
Written by the Ink & Brave editorial team from our evidence base (sources verified 8 November 2026, last updated 9 November 2026).
If you feel like it
- When your child tells you something, listen first and say thank you. Solutions can come afterwards.
- Ask which adults are on their Hero Card — if they want to share.
When a comic isn’t enough
- Whenever it involves being hurt, threatened or blackmailed, or being afraid to go to school — the comic does not replace action by the school and adults.
- If your child has changed, is sad, isn’t sleeping or has physical complaints, talk to a paediatrician or GP, or a psychologist.
Need help right now? If someone is in danger, call your local emergency number — 112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US and Canada, 000 in Australia. Child and parent helplines by country
Frequently asked questions
Will the comic stop the bullying?
No. The comic helps your child practise how to tell an adult what’s going on. Bullying must be dealt with by adults — the school and parents.
Aren’t you teaching children to tell tales?
No. We teach that when something is troubling you or someone else, you can ask for help — you don’t need proof or to explain everything perfectly. Asking for help takes courage.
What if my child writes while creating the story that something is happening to them?
A person from our team reviews it and, if it is safe and would help, we get in touch with you. Your child can always see the helpline number for their country.
Reading for parents
- Article in preparation How can you help a child stand up for others?
- Article in preparation How can you tell if your child is being bullied — and what should you do? (sensitive topic)
- Article in preparation How to talk to your child about their body and about good and bad secrets (sensitive topic)
- Article in preparation What should you do when your child tells you something serious? (sensitive topic)
Personalised book: Courage to tell
A personalised book on this topic — a story for €9.90 (1 story · 16 pages) or a whole adventure for €24.90 (3 stories · 48 pages), as a storybook or a comic. A free drawing of the hero first.
