The Wave (Laurel-Leaf contemporary fiction) by Todd Strasser
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Book Reviews of The Wave (Laurel-Leaf contemporary fiction)
Book Review: Highly recommended for adults and kids to read together
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll start out by saying to adults out there that this is a book I would highly recommend...for your youngsters. First, it has characters that young adults like to read about--high schoolers, cheerleaders, football players, etc. Strasser also includes minor characters for break away from the action or for comic relief. I know my students enjoyed the characters, especially the girls who enjoyed the interaction between them and the fact that the progagonist is a female. Second, it deals with things that many young adults should know more about and/or have strong feelings about: the Holocaust and peer pressure. Discussing Nazi-ism with my class prior to reading the book caused them to ask many of the questions that the characters asked. The book helped them to understand the Holocaust better and lead to a discussion about peer pressure and the importance of setting your limits clearly before someone in high school pressures you into something (drugs, drinking, sex, stereotyping). Finally, it's a well written book. It has short chapters (everyone likes those), it's fast paced (because the book takes place over a week or so) and the main points are easilly understandable because the author has the characters repeat important information in different ways several times to make sure the young adult reader is not getting lost in sub-plots. In all, an excellent work that more parents or other adults should read with their children.Book Review: worth picking up
Summary: 5 Stars
A swift and engaging read aimed at young teens. It involves a teacher's lesson getting completely out of control.
The whole thing turns into quite the page-turner when you learn that it is more or less based on a true story!
Incidentally, if you'd like to investigate further, the actual classroom experiment was called "The Third Wave." It was thought up by a history teacher named Ron Jones at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto, California in 1969.
The teacher reportedly thought up his "program" as a way of responding to his students' professed bafflement and disbelief that a civilized nation like Germany would have so obediently followed its mustachioed leader into war and barbarity.
This book, incidentally, is merely a novelization of a ABC after-school special that aired in 1981 (it says it was "based on the teleplay"). The story was recently (2008) adapted into a full-length but much more fictionalized movie released in theaters. But that was a German movie (Die Welle). The director was Dennis Gansel. If you search for "Die Welle DVD," you can find an English version on Amazon's UK site, but it is only available as a costly import on the American site.
Book Review: Astounding, True, a must read for all high school students
Summary: 5 Stars
This book touched me in a way that I could only explain as Inspiring. I am one who has never considered myself as a follower more a leader in my own state of mind, Yet others who consider themselves as diverse tend to search for ways to make it in their society, and while on this expedition loose faith in search of and answer and as a result loose their pride, dignity and independence as to appose to who they really are. I am a student who has been to a lot of schools and I see students "Placing their trust and faith in other students hands." This is a book with a meaning which could only be described as ambiguous. The meaning may be interpreted in different ways nevertheless this is one way it is interpreted and for that I think is the reason why so many teachers around the world choose this book as a study novel. It also explains the Nazi Movement in a less old School style and shows how easy it is for one to get caught up in themselves to feel superior to be living the worst sin in the world, vanity . This book is absolutely a gem and is recommended for the knowledge seeking reader.Book Review: Fascism 101
Summary: 5 Stars
When Ben Ross decides to illustrate how Naziism came into being, he conducts a very dangerous experiment. He insists that the students in the high school history class he teaches stand and salute when responding; he teaches them the credo "Strength through discipline!" "Action through Discipline!" The students quickly respond and one boy who had previously neglected his stuides and personal grooming transformed into a serious diligent student under this new approach.
In time, the students are so pulled under the Wave, as the movement is called. They insist that other students salute them; they conduct Wave rallies and even attack a boy because he is Jewish. Parents pressure the principal to take some action and it is only the teacher's clever way of bringing the experiment to an end with the help of two students who had their own brushes with danger involving the Wave to show just how fascism can be encouraged and developed.
This was based on an actual case in California in 1969 and it illustrates the power of group mentality. An excellent, tautly written work!
Book Review: Ben Ross was a very corageous teacher
Summary: 5 Stars
The Wave is about an experiment constructed by a high school history teacher named Ben Ross. It was carried out to answer a simple question: How could so many people allow themselves to take part in a the massive genocide during the Nazi occupation in Europe? Mr. Ross didn't have a definitive answer to the question. Instead he started an experiment with the students unbeknownst to the students.
It's hard to objectively say whether Mr. Ross' experiment went to far. In the end, people were hurt physically, emotionally and socially. However, the experiment answered their question and they learned an unforgettable lesson: the dangerous imperfections of the human mind.
The story isn't incredibly well-written, but it is definitely an entertaining read. The book leaves the impression that there are only three types of people: skeptics, disciples and various degrees and deviations between those two.