The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
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Book Reviews of The Chocolate War
Book Review: The Chocolate War
Summary: 5 Stars
The Chocolate War is about a freshman at an all boy high school called Trinity, where a poster hangs reading,"Do I Dare Disturb The Universe?" hanging in a student's locker named Jerry Renault. This school is no ordinary school, because it has a secret society called the Vigils. The Vigils is run by a boy named Archie, who is the leader and assigner of the tasks they give. Every year at Trinity, the boys have to sell chocolate to earn money for the school. Jerry gets an assignment from the Vigils that he is not to sell the chocolates; like everyone else who is assigned a task by Archie, he follows orders. This makes the teachers anrgy and the other students question whether they should be selling the chocolates too. One of the teachers, Brother Leon, orders Archie to make Jerry sell the chocolates as one of his assignments. When Jerry is told this by Archie, he disobeys by still not selling the chocolates while encouraging other students to do the same. Jerry changes the way the school works under Archie's watch. Jerry takes a huge risk, whether that risk will bring him danger or fame, the question is: Did He Dare Disturb The Universe?Book Review: excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. I've read it several times and always enjoy it. Yes, it is dark, but I think it's real. I love Cormier. I enjoyed his comments about the book that are on the book on tape version that I own as well. This book was not written for a young adult audience. Cormier says he had no intention to write for young adults, but the genre sort of adopted him. He was just writing. Obviously, this is not for juvenile readers.
I love how Cormier doesn't try to sunshine up the content. As an English teacher myself, I have encountered a lot of dark writing on behalf of my students and a lot of unfortunate, dark aspects to the lives of students themselves. There's a lot of darkness out there. There's a ton of meanness in school. Sadly, but truly, that's the way it is. Yes, it's good to give hope, but we can't completely ignore the meanness. For the meanness of young people is a reflection of all of humanity and it's everywhere. Sometimes, it's important and refreshing even to be real.
Book Review: disturbing
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an adult who read this to satisfy a requirement for a Young Adult literature class. I enjoyed it, though I found it disturbing. The cruelty and corruption is all too real and I feel this should be a required read for all middle or high school children. They may think twice about bullying, manipulating or being cruel to others. Of course, these lessons should be taught at home, but since there are adults in our societies institutions that display these behaviors also, it is important to teach children to stand up for their beliefs, even though it may end up being painful. I highly recommend this book to adults readers.Book Review: Hard stuff; nevertheless should be read by...
Summary: 5 Stars
...middle schoolers and discussed with parents and peers BEFORE moving into high school...I've been out of high school over thirty years but still recognize people and situations that I had to deal with totally unprepared...and I suspect from what I've read and seen reported that high school probably is worse now in even more respects than what I experienced...Book Review: Great book
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is a great YA book. I read this for an assignment while getting my Masters in Library Science. While the book is controversial, a great teacher can discuss the elements in the book while holding the attention of the class. There are some great points of discussion.