The Revealers

The Revealers is a 2003 teen's novel by American author Doug Wilhelm about bullying in middle school.

Plot summary

Russell Trainor is the main character of the story, who never seems to get picked on at school. He is an only child and lives with his mom. Nobody talks to him, nobody likes him, he's a nobody. Until one day Richie Tucker, one of the 8th graders at his school, starts to follow and threaten him, to the point where he punches Russell and pours root-beer over his head. Russell seeks advice from the school's most-picked-on boy, Elliot Gekowicz. (Elliot has a passion for dinosaurs. He relates most topics to dinosaurs.) Elliot and Russell soon become friends with a Filipino girl called Catalina, who receives horrible notes from the popular girls especially queen bee Bethany DeMere. Using the school's internet service, KidNet, they tell their stories to all the seventh-graders, eventually the whole school, and form The Bully Lab. The site's purpose is to talk about any events of bullying a person may have witnessed or suffered. It turns later into "The Revealers" and soon, dozens of affected kids confess their stories to The Revealers to show how bad this conflict has become in middle schools all over. However, the popular student Bethany sends The Revealers a false report and the principal, who's being threatened with being sued by Bethany's father, ends up shutting down the bully lab and KidNet. But thanks to the help of Richie, Bethany's scam is foiled and they win the science fair. The lesson in this book is that people should not be bullied just because of the way they look or where they come from.