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The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.39
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: wow
Review: I had to read this book for my college english class. It was difficult for me to put it down. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. An assignment for class was to write our overall reaction and whether or not we would use this book in the classroom. I would be a little reluctant. It's not the violence or the language. It's the fact that Jerry gets the snot knocked out of him because he's not "one of the group." He goes against the norm and pays the price.
However, I would recommend this to an older student (8th-10th grade) if they had difficulty finding interesting books. This book is, to use a cliche, a page-turner. I knocked it out the day after it was assigned, and I've never done that before.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chocolate War It Is!
Review: The Chocolate War- The title itself keeps you wondering what kind of novel it is. Once you started on it, you'll not want to close the book till the very last page.
Cormier did so well portraying each and every character in the novel, from the protagonist- Jerry Renault to even the most simple character-Brother Jacques; the fair and nobel man that doesn't take sides of The Vigils.
Every chapter has its own plots and the more you read the more exciting it gets, as the plot thickens.From how Jerry has to face the world after the death of his mother to assignment given by The Vigils, every part of the story keeps you in suspense-wondering what will happen next. One of the part I find most excing would be the part when Archie Costello puts his hand in the black box to determine his fate. This novel is full of interesting bits. Read this and you will not regret!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful.
Review: "Beautiful." This was an excellent young adult book. It is the story of a teen named Jerry who has just lost his mother because of cancer and lives with his father, a pharmacist, in an apartment. He goes to Trinity, a Catholic high school. There is a group of tough bullies called the Virgils, and they give freshman assignments that they must follow, or else. Brother Leon asks the Vigils to help him with the chocolate sale this year- each kid has to sell 50 boxes for $2 a box. Jerry gets assigned to refuse to sell the chocolates for ten days. But after the ten days are up, he still refuses to sell the chocolates. He has a poster in his locker that says, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" He uses this poster as his motto. Brother Leon is furious that he still refuses to sell the chocolates, and he tells the vigils to take action.

It is a sad book, but it is very realistic. It's a classic book. It's really good, and I definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just a Little Something
Review: Although some parts were melodramatic, other parts of the book were awesome. Personally, I liked the part when Archie Costello handed out the assignments and the suspense of knowing whether or not he had to carry-out the assignment himself. Even if this book seems small, but hard to read, it's not. This book is an easy read if you're in to realistic fiction. The front of the book seems like it would be a mystery, and it kind of is, but remember...NEVER judge a book by it's cover.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Quite What I Expected
Review: A band of boys, The Vigils, enjoy making their high school classmates lives a bit challenging by giving them so-called "missions". Their missions are not usually physically challenging, but mentally. The one boy, Goober,is assigned the task of unscrewing screws from all of the schools tables and chairs, so that when pushed upon the following day, they collapse immediatley. His mind is torn about from then on and he is never the same.Jerry Renault,a freshman whose mother has just died and is dillegently trying out for the football team, is chosen by Archie, the Vigils leader,to take on one of these missions. He is told to sell chocolates for school, but refuses. At the time of refusal he does not know it is a Vigil's assignment. Jerry truly has no reasoning behind his refusal.
The Vigil's take Jerry's refusal as a defiance of their authority. They ask Jerry once and again, and he again refuses. Jerry is now being looked up to as a hero figure.Brother Leon, a school teacher and freind to the Vigils, and has spent unauthorized money on these chocolates and must sell them all to break even.
The chocolates are being sold by the Vigils, and they have now decided to make Jerry's life living heck. In the end they devise an evil plan to ruin Jerry and they do just that.
I found this book to be rather playful. An enjoyable read if your not planing to get much out of it.Jerry gets thrown into a few more twists and turns, but you'll just have to read to fond out more. With a variety of quirky characters and twists, I'd reccomend this book as a good playful book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Chocolate War
Review: The Chocolate War was a very good book. I liked it a lot because I could relate to it, because I go to an all boys Catholic school. This book is very interesting because this one teenager refuses to sell the annual fundraiser. It is interesting to see how the whole school goes nuts, and what they do to try to get him to sell the chocolates. This book was really good and I enjoyed reading it a lot. If you like teenage stories,you would like this book a lot.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: worst book ever
Review: i hated this book SOOOOO much. the storyline was not interesting to me and in some cases i couldn't follow it. i would give it no stars but i cant. it is a horrible book and i wouldn't tell anyone to go through the torture of reading this book

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do I Dare Disturb The Universe?
Review: Wow. Quite simply, wow. This book focuses arounds so many delicious themes that normal people do deal with in every-day life: Power, Revenge, it's all here.
I will not restate the plot, since it has been elaborated on numberous occasions.
The re-occuring detriment in each of the negative reviews for this book is that it is un-realistic. I tell the reader of this review right now that Archie's type of "Gang" (such a primitive word for what it really is, but will do to a certain degree) truly does exist (my school would be an example, though not to the extent that it existed in the book;). But even if it didn't, the reviewers clearly didn't understand a very important part of the book's message, "The Limits Of All Power.....Are Limitless."
It is truly amzazing to read a book that demonstrates the supreme power of authority. Then when one reads it, they remark to themselves "How can such a horrible thing such as that exist? Doesn't anyone ever DO anything about those types of mattters?" Then it hits (later on, of course), that you know someone who has dealt with pains from misusage of Power at least once in their lives. You.
This is what makes this book so magnificent. It personalizes everything you have read about; but still you do not have the courage, or maybe even opportunity to act. Hypocritical thought will enter your head about how problems should be resolved when reading this novel. Applicatoin is always the hardest to master, not the knowledge itself.

I challenge the reader of this review to read "The Chocolate War."

And then, for once, decide not to follow the masses when your heart truly believes in a different cause.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Unique Chocolate
Review: Unique Chocolate
The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier, New York

The Chocolate War, a fiction book for young adults really gives an idea of what a story is like with sadness, danger, and violence all mixed together. This probably sounds like a bad subway combo but Robert Cormier makes them into a delicious banana split. Every teen should get a chance to read this wonderful novel because it will let them know that they are not alone.
Jerry Renault the main character goes to Trinity High School and has a difficult time attending school everyday. His mother died in the spring and all he wanted to do was make the football team. Life gets worse when the traditional chocolate sale comes up because Jerry gets assigned to say no for ten days by the school's backbone group "The Vigils." He keeps saying no and goes from being a normal kid to the one who everyone is after. After completing the assignment Jerry keeps saying no.
His best friend Goober is the only one Jerry can trust now. He's always there watching out for him although Jerry doesn't know it sometimes. Jerry gets beat up by the school's biggest bully named Janza. Archie was the leader of "The Vigils" who assigned Jerry to say no and for Janza to beat him up. Archie is very clever and is liked very much by brother Leon who dislikes Jerry for not selling the chocolates. They get in on a little thing together and Obie Archie's assistant realizes just how lucky he is to be on Archie's side. Jerry doesn't know why but he's just sick of the tradition and sick of having people assuming what he's going to do next.
Brother Leon wants Jerry to sell the chocolates; in fact he wants the whole school to sell all the chocolates because he wants to win. He gets very angry when he keeps hearing Jerry say no every morning during roll call. He will do anything to make sure Jerry regrets what he is doing to the school. With Brother Leon furious at him the rest of the school takes follow and end up being against Jerry which comes toward a terrible ending.
When Jerry gets caught into a ganged fight he realizes his life will no longer be the same. This is when everything turns to the worst and he can do nothing but roll with the flow. Even though it isn't easy Jerry is going to stick through it until the end.
Goals take persistence and no matter what the risk of danger Jerry is thrown into he is always trying to find a better way around it. He didn't know the only choice he would make would end up ruining the rest of his life. He is alone; who knows if he will survive.
Through the hard times Jerry keeps his head up as best he can with a lost identity. This is why the book could water the eyes and fill the hearts of teens around the world. Every teen knows what it feels like to lose, to grow to, and to press forward.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: War on Chocolates
Review: The War on Chocolate

The readers first impression of, "The Chocolate War", might be that its about chocolate because of the title. After you start the book, you will realize that that is incorrect. This book is much more. It is a book for young adults about the hardships of a boy going through a tough time in his life.

Jerry Renault is a freshman at a private school. He is just your average kid who is shy, on the football team, and gets decent grades. Jerry's normal days come to a sudden halt when his school Trinity, a private school, has their annual chocolate sale. The headmaster is out of town so he leaves the success of the school's chocolate sale into the hands of Brother Leon, a mean and evil teacher.

Brother Leon sets a quota for each boy to meet. Each boy has to sell 50 boxes chocolates for the school to meet its goal. The sale is supposedly "optional", but everyone knows that Brother Leon will cheat you unfairly if you do not sell the chocolates. Jerry, when asked if he will participate in the sale, shocks Brother Leon when he says "no".

Jerry said "no" because the mean, secret good "The Vigils" made him. "The Vigils" are a mean group of older kids who force kids into doing stuff. If the kids fail to cooperate with them, they beat them up. Brother Leon soon finds out that Jerry was being forced to not sell the chocolates for 10 days. When his 10 days are up, he still says "no".

Now the whole school is being mean to him because Jerry doesn't have school spirit. Things get worse for Jerry when "The Vigils" not want him to sell the chocolates. Again, he says no. Soon, the teasing and beating gets to be to much for Jerry. Archie, the sly, cunning leader for "The Vigils", talks Jerry into fighting the school bully to clear his name and get his peers to stop picking on him. Will Jerry win the fight or will be humiliate himself in front of the whole school?

This book is a very exciting and rich with action. It will please all of its readers in many ways. Find out what happens to Jerry and his life, go out and read this book now!


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