Novelist Doug Wilhelm was speaking to every student and every parent in the Cawley Middle School gym.

He said it’s hard being a middle school student. He said sometimes it seems like bullying just goes with the territory. He said it’s OK to stand up to it.

And 6 feet, 10 inches tall it’s hard not to pay attention to what this guy was saying.

“I think every kid hears a voice,” Wilhelm said during a special after-school event at Cawley Middle School on Nov. 18. “It’s an inner voice. It’s a social fear. No one wants to be the dork. No one wants to be the outcast. No one wants to be the plump girl. And no time in life is this voice more acute than in middle school.”

It was this message that most of the students attending the event gleaned from Wilhelm’s novel, “The Revealers” during the school’s month-long “One Book, One School” program.

For 30 minutes each morning, classroom teachers would read the book, which centers on three middle school students who are acutely tormented by their peers – and then facilitate a discussion on the perils of teasing, bullying and emotional abuse.

Teacher Kellie Martino said Tuesday she was amazed at the topics the book elicited during the classroom discussions.

“I was shocked at how much my kids responded to this book,” Martino said. “They really got a lot of out of it. And they were able to relate it so much to their personal life. I think now they are just a little bit more aware.”

Sixth-grader Hind Chiboub thought the best part of the novel was how realistic Wilhelm made the characters appear. She said she actually believed they were in middle school.

“It was so realistic,” said Hind, 11. “He showed how things really happen.”

Wilhelm, who came to the school by way of the fundraising efforts of the Cawley Middle School Parent Teacher Association, said one of the most important things parents can do is listen to their children about these issues.

“(The book) creates a safe platform for kids to talk about it,” he said. “And I tell them that it doesn’t matter in the long run who is popular and who isn’t. The popular kids aren’t the ones who are going to rule the world. They just happen to be the ones who are popular now.”

For more information about the book or links about bullying research, visit the author’s Web site, www.the-revealers.com.