I read this one a little while back and remember enjoying it. Probably would have been more appropriate to read as a teen, of course, but still enjoyed the coming of age story. Very Lord of the Flies. ( )

Do I dare disturb the universe? A boy, Jerry Renault, who goes to Trinity boys school gets caught in a power struggle with the schools temporary head master, brother Leon and the schools secret society the Vigils. The problem is selling chocolates. The Vigils assigner is Archie. He is the boy who really controls the group. He assigns Jerry to not sell the chocolates. This begins a chain of events where corruptions and evil reign. Who wins? ( )

A blunt look at the sometimes dark and brutal nature of teenagers. Jerry Renalt is a freshman at Trinity Catholic High, a school run by monks and The Vigils, a gang of upperclassmen whose main function is to pull pranks and assert their superiority. I must say, this had one of the most unexpected plots I've come across in a long time. I didn't see the various twists and turns coming, least of all the ending. I can kind of see why this is controversial, though no more so than, say, Lord of the Flies. Both reveal the animalistic natures of children, a trait we don't often like to admit even to ourselves. ( )

Nelson, kevin
This was a pretty interesting book, to my opinion. In the begining of the book was the most boringest to be honest but as you get to really understand what is going on to the characters and also to the setting it came out to be very interesting. And if you like books about a kid who goes against a whole entire group not b y violence but by speaking to them then i recommend this to you ( )

This book was pretty interesting for me. I thought it was a little far fetched on how the secret organization called the vigils had so much power over the school. Also it was a little sad considering how Jerry's mother died and then he is harrassed at school. I thought the book had plenty of details enabling be to picture the story in my mind easily. Overall the book was pretty good and i liked it.

This book was complicated to understand, yet an entertaining story. The characters were good accessories to the plot line, and they were all entertaining. The best part of the book to me were the characters and their distince personalities. Overall, the book was good, but the characters really made it fun to read.

This book was very intersting. It talked about high scholers rankings. It shows how groups still exist. And that even if a school is cathlolic there is still many problems still occuring now. I would read the book over and over again. It was an amazing book. I loved it !

Mills, Emily
The Chocolate War is an intense read. It gives us a feeling of actually being in the story the way Robert Cormier tells it. The story is told by multiple people, so at some times, it can get confusing. The story is about a teenage boy that refuses to sell chocolates. It started out as an assignment by the Vigils, but it soon turns into pure will. It may not sound important, but thats the fascinating part. The school, Trinity, sells chocolates every year, it's basically a tradition. The Vigils have "run" the school from day one, and the freshman refusing to sell the chocolates might destroy the control the Vigils have had over the school ever since it started. How can a freshman destroy the schools entire way of tradition? If you read The Chocolate War, you'll find out.

The book was okay, I didn't really like it, the starting was very confusing and there was not enought details on some of the parts. The storyline, I thought, was kind of silly , and not very interesting. But if your into reading about so called secret brotherhoods that run a school, and pressure kids into doing wierd and odd assignments ,then you should read this book. ^-^ ( )

The Chocolate war wasn't what I expected. When a teacher hands you a book and tells you to read it the first thing you think is that is it boring. The first chapter or two seemed boring but as it went on, I was hooked. I went to catholic school so I understand the tedious work of selling things constantly. I honestly don’t know who I liked better. Archie or Jerry. I liked Jerry because he stood up for what he believed in but I also like Archie because he was so clever and devious. I give kudos to Jerry. After all he went threw he still didn’t sell the chocolates! He is very strong willed. I really enjoyed the book. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite book off all time but I liked it a lot. I do believe there is a sequel, I’m not entirely sure, but it there is, I would like to read it. The story can get confusing at times but as it gose on it gets easter to understand. The chapters jump form Jerry to Archie or another Vigil member. When they start to interact more the chapters arent spred around like in the begining. ( )

Jerry is a boy who goes to trinity high school and plays on the schools football team. Goober is a friend of Jerry who is also on the football team. Archie is the leader of a group of kids called the vigils. Brother Leon is the principle of Trinity High school. This passage is important because it helps to understand the book. The vigils are the ones who are leading the chocolate sale and not Brother Leon. The vigils are a powerful group of kids. The vigils have a lot of influence on what goes on around the school. They gave an assignment to Jerry to sell the chocolates for ten days but on the eleventh day Jerry would not accept to sell the chocolate for the fundraiser. So Jerry decides to stand up the vigils.

This book is amazing, I love it. This is now the third time I have read this book. I mean, what could get better than reading about a kid that goes to private school, tries out for the football team, and the chocolate sale is my cup of tea. On, a serious note, Jerry Renault is a freshman with good grades who wants to play quarterback in an all-boy Catholic school. He finds himself caught between cruel Brother Leon, whose withering tactics have most of the boys cowering, and the Vigils, to whom the brothers turn a blind eye because “the Vigils kept things under control.” Things come to a head concerning the sale of chocolate, the proceeds of which are essential to keeping the school running. ( )

Grady, Luke
This book is quite interesting. It tells a story of a a high school student who needs to sell a boxes of chocolates. He say "no" at first he does it because he was told to by the Vigils. The Vigils are an underground society that they do anything to cause damage to the school and something bad like that. The book in general looks on the bad site of private Catholic School. This book has been banned because of language, drugs, and masterbation. This is one of the best book Robert Cormier written. Check It out. I'm not going to lie, trust of me I'm a teen age boy. I don't even like reading. ( )

The Chocolate war is about a fresh man boy named jerry who is trying out for the football team as quaterback. their is a secret group in the school called the vigls and they call the shots for the school. they give jerry a assinment to not take chocolates for 10 days and on the 11th day he refuses to take chocolates. jerry is then classified as not following the vigls rules and is bullied, harrased, and ignored at school. jerry goes through many hard times and fights. jerry has only one friend in the school that would talk to him and his name was goober. goober was the only one on the football team that would catch jerrys passes but the others would not because of what he has done. i recomend this book to any one it is a very good and interesting book with many unexpected things. ( )

This book The Chocolate War is about a young boy at an all Catholic High school named Jerry who refuses to sell chocolate for this group" The Vigils. I think that this book is showed on how people could be so cruel to others. Like when Jerry kept refusing to sell chocolates The Viglis made Jerry's life horriable. They made all the recievers miss the ball so that Jerry wouldnt make the football team as quaterback. I think that The Vigils were really mean and digusting to Jerry all because he wouldnt sell the Chocolates. ( )

Sillars, Alexandra

I had to read this book because of my reading teacher. This book is really interesting. It tells the story of a gang in a religious school. What was bad about the book is that it was really confusing. There is also a lot of bad language on it. The plot was reallty good though

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

This is a horrifying story about a boy's school where there is literally a chocolate war.

A secret society of boys, which the administration has always turned their back on, takes over a school chocolate sale. The boys are all asked to sell fifty boxes at two dollars apiece instead of the normal twenty-five at a dollar. And the leader of the secret society is one of the students who is pushing the sale. And he tells one student to refuse to sell the
chocolate for ten days, but on the eleventh he is to take them. And he doesn't.

This book is interesting, and has a lot of twists and turns. I can see why a lot of schools use this book to teach with. There are a lot of moral lessons and many things that can be learned. I enjoyed reading this, and would recommend it to anyone who has ever had bully problems. ( )

Cormier, Robert. Chocolate war. New York, N.Y: Dell Co., 1986.

Genre:

Controversial novel (YA realistic fiction)

Themes:

YA, teens, peer pressure, sports.

Age / Grade Appropriateness:

Teen - Grade 7-9, Age 12-14

Awards:

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (1974)

ALA Best Books for Young Adults (1974)

New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1974)

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1974)

ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 (4)

ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999 (4)

Censorship Issues:

• the language
• the violence
• lack of a “happy ending”

Plot Summary:

The novel is the story of a young man’s refusal to participate in the annual chocolate sale at his all male catholic high school, but the story is complicated by an organization known as the “vigils.” The vigils are a secret organization, comprised entirely of students, which run the school from behind the scenes.
One of the first scenes in which the reader is introduced to the vigils, the meeting is to provide “assignments” for the underclassmen. The assignments vary, but the most prominent ones are for one student to remove or loosen all of the screws in a particular classroom (resulting in destruction of the classroom during the first class period of the day) and the assignment for a student named Renault to refuse to sell the chocolates for ten days.
The conflict in the novel arises when Renault continues to refuse to sell the chocolates after the prescribed ten days. The school turns on him as the vigils make him a target, by supporting the chocolate sale. The novel culminates with Renault being tricked into boxing for his honor. The boxing match is structured so that a raffle is set up where the students name a type of punch to be thrown, and the punch that provides the knockout would be the winner of the raffle. Renault is nearly killed and the novel closes with a member of the vigils discussing the destruction of Renault with the acting headmaster of the school.

Critique:

The novel was first published in 1974, so the controversy surrounding the novel may, at times, seem tame in today’s oversaturated world, but the book remains controversial today mostly due to its lack of the positive role model and the lack of a positive outcome. I personally thought that the novel was like reading “All the Kings Men”, which despite what most would say, in my book is not a compliment. The novel read very wordy and, to me, lacked a real sense of the language used by teens. Perhaps I am just a romantic, but the lack of resolution and the idea that “the world will crush you,” did not sit well with me and I found inappropriate for teens with problems of their own to grapple with that notion. The criticism surrounding the ending of this novel was so great, in fact, that in 1985 Cormier published a sequel entitled, “Beyond the Chocolate War.”

Curriculum Uses:

I find it hard to recommend this novel for any curriculum purposes, but I suppose that if I had to I would use it to discuss the ideas and repercussions surrounding peer pressure. (Although I think the message Cormier delivers is to give in. He actually uses the phrase, “They tell you to do your own thing, but they don’t mean it.”) ( )

My mother gave this book to me to read around the time that it first came out & I remember really liking it, although I didn't remember much about it. In reading it again this week for Banned Books Week, it all came back to me.

This book resonated when I was a kid because I didn't sell band candy. Everybody was supposed to, but my parents felt that it was unsafe to ask children to go door-to-door asking strangers to buy candy. I always got some funny looks for that refusal, although never anything as extreme as the main character in this book got.

I also related to this book because it, more than anything else I've ever read, truly & accurately portrays what it's like to be bullied in school. Having been on the receiving end of various kinds of bullying (from lunch trays dumped over my head to being tripped on the stairs) I loved the fact that this book gets it right - it's awful, teachers are just about always in on it & there isn't ever any justice for anyone who is bullied. Your choices tend to be a) to conform or b) refuse to conform. There are prices for either choice, but the price is more obviously brutal for those who won't give in.

Add to all of that the fact that Cormier writes beautifully & this is a book that demands to be read for all of the ways it confirms the experience of so many kids & for all of the ways it speaks to power about how awful all of that is. ( )

Wow, a YA novel that doesn't condescend to its readership! I was really impressed by this novel -- by the fine use of language as much as the plot and characterization. There were some minor holes in motivation, but the story worked anyway, for the most part. I have to admit, though, I was pretty shocked by the conclusion, which was bleak and remorseless even by adult literary standards. While I appreciate the dark ending's refusal to tie up the book's issues into a tidy package, I did feel it left a lot of open questions that should probably have been addressed. I admit I actually wondered if I was missing a few pages, since the story seemed to break off at such an abrupt, almost random place. ( )

More depressing than the last time I remember reading it. Jerry Renault decides that he "dares to disturb the universe". But the cost is incredibly high - leaving him broken and beaten.
Jerry's Catholic high school is run by a "secret group" called the Vigils. The Vigils, run by Carter (the brute), Archie (the sadistic mastermind), and Obie (the resentful secretary), run pranks and command an incredible amount of power within the school. When Brother Leon becomes acting headmaster, there is an uneasy alliance formed between him and the Vigils. Jerry gets caught in the cross fire after he decides he doesn't want to participate in the school's voluntary chocolate sale. Jerry goes from folk hero to outcast very quickly. ( )

The Chocolate War, this book was defiantly not what I thought of it to be, when I choose it out of the long list of books given to us for choice reading. When I ordered it, I believed the book to be about maybe how African Americans were treated and sent to fight in the Vietnamese war during the 50’s – 60’s. To my upheaval the book was about a young man named Jerry and his life going through a high school ruled by fear and intimidation. Only one of the many surprises this book gave me over my time reading it.
During the first couple of chapters it was hard to get into the book, you really don’t know anything about the characters being set, I believe if the author “Robert Cormier” had introduced the main antagonists with the cunning he later attributed him, the story would have been easier to ease into. However the way the antagonists in this story operated was cruel in its own childish kind of way, I expected them to be more hardcore with their actions but the pranks and misdeeds they pulled seemed to be more on the bully aspect of things, rather than the that of a full out gang they are portrayed to be.
Jerry, the character being followed the majority of the tale is an interesting one at that, his morals and actions speak louder then his words. While reading the book Jerry gave me several senses of empowerment as he defied the ways set by “the Vigils”, but it is soon shot down by his unfortunate background as well as his doubts about if he should have “disturbed the universe.” However Jerry’s character was described very well and kept in character, if that makes any sense.
The Chocolate War reminds me greatly of Lord of the Flies, while not being nearly as brutal, many similarities can be made. Several leader figures struggle for power, over weak-minded followers. The environment and every day setting changes the way people act and the way their morals are set, almost savage. Kill or be killed, follow or be followed, would be a good way to sum up how the chocolate wars environment works.
I felt the ending of the book was shocking; it may leave some even depressed. Usually in this kind of story most people would have a happy ending complex in their mind, as they wait for the main character to take down the antagonists once and for all, unfortunately The Chocolate war ends differently. I was actually angered after finishing up those last few pages I found myself saying “this story better not end with such a cheap ending.” Unfortunately it did, and I was not amused.
Even with my unhappy resolve with the ending of the book, I would recommend it to anyway who wants to have a suspenseful good read. I may have not liked the story in my own opinion, but it is written very well. The details are vivid, and the text is flavorful.
I would just recommend you brace yourself for the ending.

The Chocolate War is not what it seems. This book is an example of judging a book by its cover. Although it wasn’t my favorite book, it was an ok read. The title threw me off, I thought the book was going to have more action. The book wasn’t that gripping in the beginning because there wasn’t much action. Instead it focused more around deception and rebelling against the norm. The tension rises when Brother Leon reveals that he has bought a large amount of chocolates with money he was not supposed to spend. The Vigils are then determined to sell chocolates but only a few members know the true reason.
There are a few main characters in this novel. The protagonist is Jerry Renault a freshman at Trinity high school. Jerry is different from almost everyone at his school. He gets harassed, tormented, and beaten from day one. However he chooses not to tell his father or anyone else that could help him. Jerry never complains about what he has to go through he just remains quiet and calm. Archie, one of the main antagonists, is the leader of the gang called the Vigils. The Vigils silently run the school, all the students know about them, however most teachers choose to ignore them. Archie is very manipulative. He not only controls the Vigils, but he can control the student body and Brother Leon. Brother Leon is uncannily similar to Archie. He is just as manipulative as Archie, the only difference is Brother Leon controls the teachers while Archie controls the students. There are many members of the Vigils that appear frequently in the book but only Obie thinks the Vigils are not moral. He wasn’t as strong as Jerry because he had the chance to call out Archie but did not take the chance until later on in the story.
The book mainly takes place around the school. The Vigils have a meeting room which is behind the gym. The football field is where Jerry is first beaten up and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. The book had a few different themes and symbols the most noticeable to me was rebelling against standards that are wrong. There are some little symbols throughout the story that support this. The most notable was near the end of chapter three, there is a billboard that has “WHY?” written on it and spray painted next to it someone spray painted “WHY NOT?” This reflects Jerry’s personality and gives the reader an early hint of what is to unfold.
The Chocolate War is for people who like reading books with plot twists and deception. The author shows how the two people in high power were the most corrupt and the people that supposedly had no power caused the most impact. Archie and Brother Leon knew that Jerry was starting to impact the others so they tried to stop him. In the final chapters there is a fight which surprised me because there wasn’t a lot of physical confrontation in the book. The author ends the book without a real conclusion, it will leave you wondering.

Jerry Renault is a freshman with good grades who wants to play quarterback in an all-boy Catholic school. He finds himself caught between cruel Brother Leon, whose withering tactics have most of the boys cowering, and the Vigils, to whom the brothers turn a blind eye because “the Vigils kept things under control.” Things come to a head concerning the sale of chocolate, the proceeds of which are essential to keeping the school running.

Full review:
http://www.twentybyjenny.com/teenBook... ( )

Rereading this after so many years, I'm actually surprised at the mentions of sexuality. Didn't even occur to me or phase me when I read this as an actual teen but now, reading it as a librarian, I'm wondering what kind of responses this book garnered at the time, given that people are still flipping out about this kind of content more than three decades later. ( )