The Chocolate War

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: "THE CHOCOLATE WAR" was a very interesting and always action packed story. Robert Cormier was very descriptive and straight to the point which made the book fun and easy to read. If I had to read this book over again I would chose to right away. I reccomend this book to 8th graders and up. Some younger children would not be able to take the language and the explicitness that is used in the book. I thought that Cormier's ideas were great and there were many times where I could relate to things in the book. I think he could possibly be writing about some of his experiences when he was a child in highschool. I really liked this book for two reasons. I liked it because of its creativness and because Cormier wrote about things that many people could relate to. This is how I feel about "THE CHOCOLATE WAR".

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Summary: TCW Review
Review: The Chocolate war is a book that is pretty dull but brings up controversial matters with gangs and schools. this makes the story interesting. it also makes young readers realize some of the truths that relate to the story and schools in general. the Chocolate War would defiantly be a good book to read.

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: In my opinion The Chocolate War was an okay novel. The novel has a good storyline starting at Trinity a school for boys with Jerry (the main character) on the football field with the coach yelling at him then leaving the field with a sence of happiness because the coach told him to return for practice the next day. The story then introduces Archie and Obie. Archie is the assigner and Obie is the secratary of a secret organization at Trinity called The Vigils. The story continues with the beginning of the chocolate sale and Brother Leon calling each students name to check whether or not each student will sell the fifty boxes of chocolates for the sale. Every thing goes fine untill Jerry says that he will not sell th chocolates. Later on in the story everyone finds out that Jerry said he would'nt sell the chocolates because The Vigils told him to, but The Vigils begin to break intohis locker and call his house and then just laugh because they felt that Jerry was defying them by deciding not to sell the chocolates even after the time The Vigils told him not to. The antagonism continues with Archie getting a student called Emile to beat up Jerry, The Vigils getting everyone in the school to sell there chocolates and ignore Jerry, and Archie convincing Jerry to have a boxing mtch with Emile after school and having the everyone in the school except the teachers attend the fight. Overall I enjoyed the novel except for it's mature content it includes, and I give this novel a three star rating.

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: I feel that The Chocolate War is a very interesting and opening book. There have been many different opinions about wether or no this book should be taught in schools. If I had to choose I would definitly reccommend this book for all students in the eigth grade or higher. There are some cuss words and it mentions masturbating a lot, but these are things that kids hear about all the time. Before you read this book you should make sure that you don't get confused with the title. The main character Jerry is refusing to sell choclates in his school's annual chocolate sale but the chocolates are not the main issue at all. The main issue is about power and how power is not always a good thing even though everybody wants it. The setting in the book is a high school named Trinity. It is a private all boys school. In Trinity there is group called the Vigils. The Vigils control the school. They jave more power than the teachers or headmaster combined. The leader of this group is a senior named Archie Costello. Bascially he makes up pranks and forces his classmates to do them. In Jerry's case he was forced not to sell chocolates for ten days, in order the make their teacher mad. The only problem is that Jerry doesn't follow completely through with the assignment. He end up being one independent guy against a whole school of followers. Read the book to find out what he goes through. You wont regret it.

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Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: This story is obviously not for younger children. There is pretty bad language and a little bit of sexual content. In my opinion, it should be for ages 12 and up. I think that this story is pretty good. This book is about teenage boys and I can relate to it a lot since I myself am a teenage boy. Even though the author sometimes uses incomplete sentences and thoughts, it still can bring up a lot of issues. This book also helped me to build up courage. You shouldn't always go along with the crowd. Be independent as well. In conclusion, overall this book is great and richly written.

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Summary: The Chocolate War had a weak ending
Review: The Chocolate War was a great book up until the ending. The book had went from character to character, giving specific deatils about each one. It was interesting and had an entertaining plot, one that many teens may be able to relate to. This book shows the unbalanced priorities and rankings in different social statuses. This book had many twists and turns throughtout it, for example, a real picture existing from a camera turning into no picture at all, just a lie. This book is both realistic and unrealistic. All the different social groups and how they treated the groups under them are realistic. I know that happens in our school, and probably in many others too. The "most popular" people tease, betray, and harm the "unpopular" people in any way they can without getting caught. But this book is unrealistic by the way The Vigils are acting so carelessly. They can do anything- destroy a whole room, terrorize a teacher- and get away with it. If there was a group like The Vigils active in our school or one near us, they would surely be shut down before they caused any real damage. I think that Robert Cormier should have added a twist at the end, like Archie suddenly getting beat up. Cormier added surprise throughout the whole book, until the ending. I did not like the ending of the book and thought it was weak compared to the rest of the book.

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Summary: Those that have disturbed the universe.....
Review: I'm 20 years old and rather well read, but I consider this book of one the most disturbing novels I have ever read because it so accurately reflects a reality that is not often examined. I just recently read this novel at the recommendation of a friend who thought I would have more insight on it than most people. This is the story of Jerry, who is not a nonconformist by nature, but following the recent death of his mother feels his universe disturbed and with nothing left to lose refuses to sell the chocolates at his school's annual sale. Although, I have not attended a school with a system as brutal as that of the Vigils at Trinity, I did have some experience with similar violence and the use of a certain group as an effort to maintain social control over the whole. This book is probably frequently banned because those in authority over jr. high and high school students don't want them to see their realities reflected back at them. They might become tempted to dare to disturb the universe themselves. By reflecting that reality Cormier transends the young adult genre and creats a work for all ages. Anyone who ever had to suffer under the tyrant authority of both faculty and students of a school and suffered for their education should read this book. If Mr. Cormier were still alive I would thank him for writing this novel.

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Summary: A Book With Deaper Meaning
Review: The Chocolate War is an exelent story for use in school. The book contains a deeper meaning and is told from the point of view of students. Also, the message of the story is that not every conflict has a happy ending, a message Robert Cormier ment for students. However, the book fails to hold the interest of the reader and has a quite unsatisfactory ending, making the book unsuitable for pleasure reading. The Chocolate War is a dull book, but contains much controversial matter, making it an excelent book to be taught in schools.

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Summary: my review
Review: This book, I thought was boring with a boring plot. There were some sick parts that probably could have been avoided. The only reason why I gave it three stars was because the technique of writing. The technique switched the camera on many different characters that way you can understand everyone's thoughts to go along with the story.

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Summary: Matt S's Review, for The Chocolate War
Review: I thought this book was pretty good. It was a book that some teens can relate to. I thought this book would have been much better, overall, if it had a better ending. The author could have made some big twist at the end. Anyways, this book is pretty good.