# What Do I Say If...?: The Street-Smart Phrasebook for Kids 8-12: The Exact Words to Say No, Get Help, and Stay Safe With Strangers, Friends, Bullies, and People Online > Kids know the rules. In the moment they need a sentence. This book gives kids 8 to 12 the exact words for 100 tricky situations, plus a game to practice them. What Do I Say If...? is a street-smart phrasebook by Iris Athens for kids aged 8 to 12 and the grown-ups who read with them. It covers 100 real situations, from a surprise school pickup to a stranger in a game chat, each with a short line to say, what to do next and who to tell. The advice follows public guidance from groups like NCMEC and the AAP. - URL: https://www.agentskillpacks.com/books/what-do-i-say-if - Author: Iris Athens (pen name) - Length: 159 pages (paperback) - Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HP6GP6KY - Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HP7PZ572 ## A sentence beats a rule Your child already knows a lot of rules. Don't talk to strangers. Be careful online. Tell me if anything happens. The trouble, as the book puts it, is that rules are easy to remember at the kitchen table and hard to use in the moment. When a friend is daring them, or a grown-up is rushing them, or a message makes their stomach drop, a child does not need one more rule. They need a short sentence they have said out loud before, so it comes out on its own. That is what Iris Athens wrote: a phrasebook, like the ones you take on a trip, but for the tricky moments of being 8 to 12. ## The same five steps, a hundred times Every one of the 100 situations follows one pattern. NOTICE gives the clue that something is off. SAY THIS gives the first line, short on purpose. IF THEY PUSH gives the next line when the other person doesn't stop. DO THIS is the action that keeps the child safe, and TELL IT says who to tell and when. Then comes the part we like most. A PRACTICE line for the grown-up to read in character, a little pushy, a little friendly, so the child can answer it out loud. "Come on, just this once. Nobody will know." The child answers in their strong voice. Then you swap roles. The situations run from small to serious. A classmate wants to copy homework. Someone says you can't sit here. A grown-up you don't know says your dad sent them. A caller asks if you're home alone. Someone in a game wants to move the chat to a private app. ## Built on public guidance, not on fear The safety advice follows public guidance from groups like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics and StopBullying.gov, with the sources listed at the back. Those groups did not write or review the book, and it says so. It skips two things on purpose. It does not teach stranger danger, because kids don't know who counts as a stranger, and a lost child needs to be able to ask one for help. And it uses no statistics or scary stories. The book's view is simple: fear makes kids freeze, practice makes them move. ## Practice, then a plan for the fridge The Practice Game turns the book into ten minutes a week, with an 8-week schedule that starts with the strong voice and ends with emergencies. Practice is always announced. The book is firm that you should never test your child with a staged stranger or a fake message. At the back, Our Family Safety Plan has space for the numbers your child should know by heart, a safe grown-up team, who can pick them up from school, a "come get me" message and a fire escape plan. The Cut-Out Cards hold the key lines for a backpack. The last card is for the grown-up: "You will never be in trouble for telling me." We built the problem pages for this book around the same rule the book follows: help first. If a child may be in danger right now, call 911, or the Childhelp hotline at 1-800-422-4453. ## What is inside - 100 situations, each in the same steps: NOTICE, SAY THIS, IF THEY PUSH, DO THIS, TELL IT, and a PRACTICE line for the grown-up to read - Four starting chapters on the inside alarm, the strong voice, safe grown-ups, and the difference between secrets and surprises - Chapters for school, friends and dares, bullies, out in public, home alone, and online and gaming - Calm chapters on body safety and on what to do when a grown-up breaks the rules, best read together - An emergencies chapter: what to say to 911, fire, gas, choking, poison and storms - The Practice Game with an 8-week schedule of ten minutes a week, and a What Would You Do quiz after each chapter - A fill-in family safety plan for the fridge and twelve cut-out cards with the key lines ## Chapters - For Grown-Ups: Read This First - Hey, Kid: How This Book Works - Your Inside Alarm - Your Strong Voice - Safe Grown-Ups - Secrets vs. Surprises - At School - Friends and Dares - Bullies and Mean Words - Out in Public - Home Alone - Online and Gaming - Your Body Is Yours - When a Grown-Up Breaks the Rules - Emergencies - The Practice Game - Our Family Safety Plan - Cut-Out Cards ## Problems this book helps with - [Is a family code word enough to keep your child safe from a stranger pickup?](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/family-code-word-for-kids) - [Home alone rules for kids the first time: what to say at the door, the phone and the smoke alarm](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/home-alone-rules-for-kids-first-time) - [Your child can't say no to friends. Is that normal, and how do you teach them to?](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/how-to-teach-kids-to-say-no-to-friends) - [Looking for a safety book to give a child aged 8 to 12? What to look for, and how to read it together](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/safety-book-gift-for-kids-8-to-12) - [Secrets vs. surprises: how to explain the difference to your child without scaring them](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/secrets-vs-surprises-body-safety) - [A stranger in an online game is asking your child where they live. What do you do right now?](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/stranger-in-online-game-asking-personal-info) - [Your child is being bullied and goes back to school tomorrow. What should they say to the bully?](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/what-should-my-child-say-to-a-bully) - [What to teach kids about strangers, now that "stranger danger" is out](https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/what-to-teach-kids-about-strangers) ## FAQ ### What age is What Do I Say If...? for? Kids aged 8 to 12, read with a parent, grandparent or teacher. Older kids can read it alone, but the practice lines are written for a grown-up to read out loud while the child answers. It is not written for children under 7 or for teenagers. ### Does the book teach stranger danger? No. It follows the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which moved away from stranger danger. Kids learn to watch what people do, not how they look, to check first before going anywhere with anyone, and to pick who to ask for help, like a store worker with a name tag. ### Will it scare my child? The book is built not to. It uses no statistics and no scary stories, because fear makes kids freeze and practice makes them move. The body safety chapter and the chapter on grown-ups who break the rules are meant to be read together, and you can skip or pause any page. ### Does the book cover online games and chats? Yes. Chapter 10 has sixteen online situations, from someone asking what school you go to and offers of free game coins to a person who threatens to share a picture. Each one says what to type, or not type, and when to get a grown-up right away. ### Is this book a replacement for supervision or professional help? No. It is a set of words to practice, not a safety system. If a child may be in danger, call 911. The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 offers free, confidential counseling by call or text. Iris Athens is a pen name, and the author is not a child-safety professional. Links go to Amazon. ToolGenX publishes this book under a pen name and earns from every sale.