The Body of Christopher Creed

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful coming-of-age novel!
Review: Carol's book is a wonderful coming-of-age novel with very valuable life lessons for teens. Moreover, it is an outstanding page-turner! I read it because I am acquainted with Ms. Plum--I am 40ish. I passed it around to my family members asking their opinion whether my 13-year-old nephew was old enough to read it. His grandmother said no, but conceded that she might be out-of-date. Nevertheless, she absolutely loved the book (age 70). My brother (nephew's dad) read it in one sitting, loved it, and immediately told his son to read it. Thanks Carol for an outstanding effort!

Rating:
Summary: The Body of Christopher Creed
Review: This book has displayed a lot of talent on the authors part. It gives a sense of teenage class systems today in a way that everyone can relate too. I think it is an excellent read for people of that age level. The writing is very descriptive and gives the reader a good picture of what's going on. I liked this book because it's not about the average high schoolers day to day occurences. It has to do with a more serious issue, but is not overly pessimistic. Overall I think it is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: This book is simply amazing. I hope to see it considered for the Printz Award in 2001. I don't want to give anything away by mistake (just read the summary above) so I'll just say "read this book."

Rating:
Summary: Why I Wrote CREED
Review: I decided to write THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED because, as an adult, I was haunted by the memories of how certain kids were treated in my schools when I was a kid.

I think every school across America has one-a class punching bag, a kid who becomes the victim of other kids' aggression, for whatever reason. In my school, there was a kid who pulled his hair out, one who was overweight, one who cried at the drop of a hat...all of them got beaten up a lot. While I was never the one who beat on these victims (geez, I hope I wasn't), I do remember standing around and not doing much while kids like this took abuse that frequently ended in bloodshed.

I wanted to make the point that someday, those kids will be gone. But your conscience stays with you forever. And since my dark side runs pretty deep...I think that's why the disappearance, dark woods, night scares, dead Indians...

I interviewed a number of peer-abused people to write CREED. In every case, the tortures they suffered were still remembered twenty and thirty years later. And also, they remembered those kids who rose above the abuse and showed a little kindness toward them.

If you're a peer-abused kid, I hope you will enjoy the labyrinth of mystery, darkness, burning consciences! and the unlikely frienships that form when the good guys start to appear victorious.

If you're a kid who's not peer-abused, maybe you'll see the chance I never took-until it was too late-and do something nice for someone who doesn't have it as good as you.

I enjoy hearing from all my readers, young and old! Helps me write. My readers can write to me at my publisher, Harcourt, 525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

In any case, I hope all enjoy the journey to the body of Christopher Creed...

Rating:
Summary: Great Book For Teens or Anyone
Review: The Body of Christopher Creed Book Summary

By Dylan Schrode

One of the best books that I've read all year would have to be The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci. This mystery/thriller novel threw many curveballs at the reader, and always kept you guessing. The author does a great job of plotting out the characters and their motives. At the end of the book, she (Carol) tells the reader an interesting fact about Chris Creed that leaves the reader wanting more.
All in all, this book is directed for an audience of 13 and up. The book starts out in the present life of Torey Adams, a regular High School student who gets caught up in the mystery of where and why Chris Creed had vanished. Torey is writing his story about Chris Creed and publishing it on the internet so people can read it and respond. You don't know why Torey does this until the last chapter of the book, where Carol wraps up the novel.
The flashback of Torey Adam's story begins in his home town of Steepleton, New Jersey. He is an All-American Football star, has a popular girlfriend, friends, a nice car, a good family; all the good things in life. Steepleton is a town that has a reputation of being "perfect." Sure, some people are drug addicts; some are flunkees. But for the most part, there aren't any gangs or bad people terrorizing Steepleton, It's just a easy town to live in. Until Chris Creed is suddenly missing.
Nobody knew why Chris had vanished. Some say that he committed suicide due to the fact he was the geek in school. Chris was always bugging you about the stupidest things that didn't matter. That's why nodoby really liked him, because he was a huge pest. Others say that Chris had ran away and changed his name to get away from his mother. His mother was in the marines and she never let Chris have any social life. Not one bit. She kept him locked in his room, safe from the "bad" things, such as cliques, drugs, alcohol, etc.
Torey had become more and more interested in what had happened to Chris and decided to start investigating the situation. He accidentally ran into his past friend, Allie, while looking for info on Chris. Coincidentally, Allie was also trying to get some scoop on the Chris crisis. Allie had been a neighbor and close friend to Chris for a very long time, and she had predicted Chris would snap any day. But where did he go was the big question.
Throughout the rest of the book, Torey and Allie develop a good relationship among each other and work together to find out more about Chris. Along the way, Allie and Chris meet new people and challenges that all help them in finding out where Creed went. As the book progresses, Torey gives up his jock-like appearance, his relationship with his girlfriend, and even his relationship with his best friends, but will benefit from doing this in the long run.
Many lessons can be learned from this story. The message I got from this book would have to be that being who you are is one of the most important things in life, and you shouldn't let someone rob you of your individuality.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad Book
Review: This book was the first that my school's book club read. It was rather slow for me and by the time I got to the middle I felt like we should've been wrapping it up. I did get in to the story and it did take me away from my surroundings to the setting the author created. Though it was probably 100 pages long than necessary and was definitely a cliff hanger, the end of the book was really deep and insightful and there were lots of lessons to be learned. However, for as many hundreds of pages as I read, I deserved a better conclusion than that. Even if the main characters didn't find Christopher, I deserved to know what happened.

Rating:
Summary: Not appropriate for children
Review: I happened to find out about this book because my son checked it out for school. I just happenly glanced at it one day and was appalled at what I saw. There was foul language, sexual references, talk about suicide. This is not a book a jr high or middle school kid should read. Beware parents.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Review: The Body of Christopher Creed was a very interesting mystery that I just read by Carol Plum-Ucci. It follows sixteen-year-old Torey Adams as he tries to unravel the secret behind the disappearance of the neighborhood weirdo, Christopher Creed. No one is sure if Creed is dead or alive or where he is, and people are quick to point fingers from the security of their own ignorance.
I liked this book, although I wouldn't recommend it to readers under 12 due to some of its content. I liked the writer's style in this book because it was easy to follow; it wasn't slow but it still gave you a good image of what was going on. Also, I found the characters to be very human, in that you could relate to them. I also liked that there were lessons to be learned in this book, but if you just wanted to read something for pleasure without thinking about morals, it worked just fine, too. Overall, I would recommend this book to someone 12 or older who wants an enthralling, somewhat disturbing, yet very interesting mystery book.

Rating:
Summary: good, but low level
Review: I read this book with my book club in school, and since it was my first time participating, I wasn't really expecting much. But i ended up really liking this book, I thought Torey, the main character was a really great guy, it was easy to feel bad for him and all.
So even though the plot was good, there were two things i didn't like. First, this book was for a much lower reading level, and secondly i was not satisfied with an ending.
But, in the end, this is a good book for a book club to discuss

Rating:
Summary: This book is really good! If you dont read it your crazy!
Review: In this book the main character, Torey, was a football player with the perfect life, perfect parents, perfect girlfriend, and perfect friends. There was a really weird kid in his school too, named Christopher Creed. He was the school 'Whipping boy' as said on the back of the book. He was pushed around by all the kids in the school. Then one day...he disappeared, the only thing that was given was a note stating how he couldn't take it anymore. Gossip started about how he killed himself or if he ran away, even after the fact he might be dead, people still joked about dumb ways he could have killed himself. Torey was effected and these jokes made him sick. Chris had used his name as someone he wish he could have been born as and it bothered Torey. Then from there Torey's world was turned upside-down as he searched for the answers to what happened. READ THIS BOOK NOW, I PROMISE IF YOU START YOU WONT WANT TO STOP BEFORE THE ANSWER IS REVEALED...OR ISN'T!