Publisher Description
One of the most controversial YA novels of all time, The Chocolate War is a modern masterpiece that speaks to fans of S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and John Knowles’s A Separate Peace.
After suffering rejection from seven major publishers, The Chocolate War made its debut in 1974, and quickly became a bestselling—and provocative—classic for young adults. This chilling portrait of an all-boys prep school casts an unflinching eye on the pitfalls of conformity and corruption in our most elite cultural institutions.
“Masterfully structured and rich in theme; the action is well crafted, well timed, suspenseful.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[Frank] Muller’s mesmerizing narration underlines Jerry’s frustrations with sports, school, family, and life. He captures the tone and cadences of the male cast, from Jerry’s growing disillusionment and Archie’s sly intimidation to the chilling menace in Brother Leon’s voice…ln his foreword, Cormier admits he wrote this for adults, not knowing that writing for young adults was even a possibility. Yet it has become a controversial and often banned YA classic, rich in themes—bullying, fitting in versus being true to oneself, dealing with peer pressure—that resonate as profoundly today as they did when this was published, in 1974.”—Booklist, starred review
“The characterizations of all the boys are superb.”—School Library Journal, starred review
“Compellingly immediate. . . . Readers will respect the uncompromising ending.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Choice
A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
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“This book is like a cross between two very well known classics. As soon as I got into it, I was reminded of “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Lord of the Flies”. Think secret societies, unfair and corrupt teachers, and characters that go against the grain-because they want to disrupt the universe. Enter an unassuming main character named Jerry, who has just lost his mother-and all he wants to do is play football. The secret society in school, The Vigils, assign different tasks to students. Jerry is assigned the task of refusing to sell any chocolate in the recent chocolate sale-but only refuse for 9 days. Jerry decides that he doesn’t want to sell the chocolate at all. Teachers are upset at this refusal-WHAT?!? No school spirit?!!? That is unacceptable. The other students start to question whether they should sell chocolates too. A certain teacher and The Vigils decide to make an example of Jerry-harassment and bullying ensue. Quite an interesting book-as mentioned previously about the other two classics-I was pleasantly surprised.”
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Rebecca (4 out of 5 stars)
