Remy Broussard's Christmas
by Kittie Howard
As Christmas approaches, a bullied child withdraws from friends and questions the meaning of Christmas. A South Louisiana community comes together to stop the bullying and open Remy's heart to the meaning of Christmas.When a classmate physically and mentally bullies Remy, the third-grader withdraws from friends and imagines the worst about his parents. Staring at the Christmas tree in the classroom enables the sharecropper's son to escape his poverty-stricken life and dream about opening a present on Christmas morning and having turkey for Christmas dinner, neither of which has ever occurred.Friends blame the changes in Remy's behavior on Leonard's bullying and encourage Remy to talk to his parents, his teacher or his priest. Remy refuses, often with open hostility. As Christmas Day approaches, Remy's struggle to understand why he has so little and others have so much deepens. He concludes that Jesus is punishing him for hating Leonard and his bullying.A bayou-laced, South Louisiana community comes together in 1952 to stop Leonard's bullying in a compassionate manner and open Remy's heart to the meaning of Christmas through love and forgiveness.* * * * * * *"Remy Broussard's Christmas" is the first novella in the "Remy's Bayou Road" series.