The chocolate war : a novel

Format:

Book

Title:

The chocolate war : a novel

Author:

Cormier, Robert.

ISBN:

9780394828053

9780375829871

9780606001694

9780440944591

9780881033212

Publication:

[New York] : Pantheon Books, [1974]

Physical Description:

253 pages ; 22 cm

Summary:

A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.

Reading Level:

820 Lexile.

Program Information:

Accelerated Reader None 5.4 8.0 Maude Laird Middle School.

Subject(s):

Preparatory school students -- Juvenile fiction.

Fund raising -- Juvenile fiction.

Bullying -- Juvenile fiction.

School violence -- Juvenile fiction.

Gangs -- Juvenile fiction.

Bullies -- Juvenile fiction.

High schools -- Juvenile fiction.

Peer pressure in adolescence -- Juvenile fiction.

Children's stories, American -- 20th century.

Schools -- Fiction.

Margaret A. Edwards Award.

Genre:

Young adult fiction.

Author's presentation copies (Provenance).

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	YA Fic Cormier, R. 1974	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Library	YA FIC COR	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Newberg Public Library	TEEN CORMIER	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	TEEN Cormier, R.	Searching... Unknown

Reissued now in hardcover with a new introduction by the author, Cormier's chilling look at the insidious world of gang intimidation and the abuse of power in a boys' boarding school is no less relevant today than it was in 1974.

Author Notes

Robert Cormier began writing novels for adults, but established his reputation as an author of books for young adults, earning critical acclaim with three books, each of which were named New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year: The Chocolate War (1974), I Am the Cheese (1977), and After the First Dark (1979).

Cormier was born on January 17, 1925, in Leominster, Mass., where his eighth-grade teacher first discovered his ability to write. Cormier worked as a commercial writer at WTAG-Radio in Worcester, Mass. He also worked as a newspaper reporter and columnist at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and at the Fitchburg Sentinel. Cormier received the Best Human Interest Story of the Year Award from the Associated Press of New England in 1959 and 1973. He also earned the Best Newspaper Column Award from K.R. Thomson Newspapers, Inc., in 1974.

Cormier, who is sometimes inspired by news stories or family events, is known for having serious themes in his work, such as manipulation, abuse of authority, and the ordinariness of evil. These themes are also evident in many of his more than 15 books.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Horn Book Review

This edition of Cormier's groundbreaking novel includes a new introduction by the author recounting the book's controversial reception at publication and the battles against its censorship that have followed ever since. The masterful account of freshman Jerry Renault's own lonely battle against the ruling powers of his school is as provocative and disturbing today as it was to readers over twenty years ago. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Vicious and violent mob cruelty in a boy's prep school is not a new theme but Cormier makes it compellingly immediate in this novel of Trinity High -- a boys' day school with the close, concentrated, self-contained atmosphere of a boarding school -- temporarily headed by the venomous, manipulating Brother Leon and unofficially run by power-obsessed senior Archie Costello -- the ingeniously audacious "assigner" for a secret organization called the Vigils. A typical Vigils assignment -- which no student would consider refusing -- is to spend the night undoing the screws of all the desks and chairs in one classroom, so that they collapse on touch next morning. More serious though is the assignment given freshman Jerry Renault, who must refuse for ten days to participate in the chocolate sale on which Brother Leon has staked his position. In strong, staccato scenes that shift from one boy to another Cormier tells about Jerry's persecution when he decides spontaneously to go on saying no after his ten days are up and Brother Leon induces Archie to see this as defiance of the Vigils. No underworld gang closing in on a victim is more menacing than this teenage army led by a Leon-Archie alliance against one boy whose locker poster reads "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe." Mature young readers will respect the uncompromising ending that dares disturb the upbeat universe of juvenile books. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Gr. 6^-10. Bullying is at the center of this grim YA classic about a teenager who tries to stand up to the corrupt school authorities and the ruthless school gang.