Challenged/Banned Books Exercise
Due: August 2. This project is worth 17%.
Middle School
Cormier, Robert – The Chocolate War
I am been asked as a parent to evaluate the challenge being brought on the by Smith
family of Jefferson City against the book, The Chocolate War, that is part of the reading
list at the Jefferson Middle School. Jefferson County, is a bedroom community of over
52,000 residents. Surrounded by tourism and theme parks in Sevier County, the
metropolis of Knoxville and the industrial center of Hamblen, Jefferson County is known
as the home of the Christian university, Carson Newman, for its lakes, fishing and
boating, and general water recreations. There are approximately 19,573 families
according to the 2010 census and 48.3% of the school children received reduced/free
lunches. There are 78 churches, 12 schools, 3 universities/community colleges and 4
public libraries. The schools and universities are the largest employers, the highest
commercial employer is Walmart. The median income, according to the 2010 Census, is
$38,800. I have lived in this community for 9 months and worked in it for just under 3
months. My community interactions lead me to believe this town is strong in its faith and
realizes the value of education and literacy for its children.
In preparing for this panel, I have read the book, researched reviews, both adults and
young adult (12-17), researched the options the Jefferson County school board offers
parents, and into the awards/prizes the title has received.
Description: It is the fictional story of Jerry Renault, a freshman at Catholic boy’s prep
school. Jerry has recently lost his mother and this loss, has of course, and has deeply
affected the family. His relationship with his father is caring, polite but distant. Jerry has
aspirations to make the football team and that dream is becoming a reality when the
annual chocolate fundraiser starts. There is a secret society operating within the school
called The Vigils. Archie Costello, is the Assigner, of The Vigils, and concocts way to
disrupt classes and dishes out ‘assignments’ to students that must be performed in
secrecy. The administration and teachers know of the Vigils and does nothing to curb
them. Jerry is given the ‘assignment’ to not sell chocolates for the first ten days of the
sale. This infuriates Brother Leon, a teacher, who has recently become the interim head
schoolmaster. On the tenth day, Jerry, realizing the cruelty of the ‘assignment’ on both
himself and the schoolmaster, makes a stand and decides he does not want to participate
in anything that he feels coerce into doing. He continues to say that he is not going to sell
the chocolates. This decision spirals him, The Vigils, and the schoolmaster into events
that reflect that sometimes the ‘right’ decision can bear heavy and harsh consequences.
Awards: This book was written in 1974 and won the American Library Association’s
(ALA) Notable/Best Books award, the ALA Best Books for Young Adults, the ALA the
Best of the Best Books for Young Adults, the New York Times Notable Books of the
Year that year. In 1991, the Margaret E. Edwards Award, was received for this title and
two others by this author for “provide a window through which young adults can view
the world.”
All of these awards have criteria such as: readability, literary merit, and portraying
realistic experiences and/or appeal to the targeted audience.
This book is also recommended by the H.W. Wilson's Middle and Junior High
School Library Catalog, a catalog “to over 10,000 fiction and non-fiction books
recommended for children and young adolescents, grades five through nine. The
collection is a valuable tool for collection development and maintenance, reader's
advisory and curriculum support for the middle and junior high school library (H.W.
Wilson, 2014).”
Reviews: For this panel, I wanted to have reviews representing parents, young adults,
and educators/academia. The reviews collected for this book were from:
1. Common Sense Media. This website had reviews from both parents and young
adults. They recommended the book for an audience of 14 and up. Of the 27
reviews, 12 were by parents and 15 by young adults (12 to 17). The parents
recommended the age of 15 and the young adults recommended the age of 13.
There was a mixture of likes and dislikes among both sets and for similar reasons.
Giving a range of one to five, five the highest, the book averaged a three in:
educational value, positive messages, violence, sex and language (Common Sense
Media, 2014).
2. Stacked Books. This review was by a former librarian and now bookriot.com
editor. Both Stacked Books and Bookriot are websites/blogs with a main focus on
offering reviews and discussion regarding literature in all its formats, to
encourage an interest in reading. This reviewer had read the book twice, once
before working with teens and once after. It depicts how in the first reading her
concern was of the discomfort of the book being challenged. In the second
reading it was more on what it reveals about character, power and motivation and
how these ideas develop and that sometimes that development is painful. It also
mentions the areas of contention (masturbation, violence, representation of
women, and peer pressure) keeping them in context and revealing the
opportunities for discussion and thought on these areas (Jensen, 2013).
3. Teen Ink. Written by a teen, provided this as part of the review – “This book was
excellent. It was very realistic and true to life. Most people can connect with fear,
pain, and rejection; Jerry Renault felt all of these. Readers tend to be drawn
toward characters that they can relate to” (Chicopee, Not provided).
4. The Alan Review: "The Misfortune of a Man Like Ourselves": Robert Cormier's
The Chocolate War as Aristotelian Tragedy. This review did the most for me
personally is seeing how ideology can affect the interpretation of this material. It
speaks of how if the book was discussed from the perspective of tragedy, rather
than young adult fiction, many of the issues of the book would be more available
for audiences to “feel comfortable” in entering into conversation about (Keeling,
1999). I found this important in understanding what is truly causing the conflict
and investigating possible solutions.
Potential Controversy: This book has been controversially for over 40 years. It has
been challenged on the grounds of: profanity (one account claims there are 171 swear
words (The Associated Press, 2000)); masturbation; negative representation of women
and/or the Catholic Church; and violence. Parents have concerns that this book provides
a negative and harmful example regarding these areas of contention.
Conclusion: As a parent to a 6 year boy, I found this book distressing. In the final pages,
I was almost sick with concern for this fictional character. I wanted almost every other
possible ending then the one I read. I needed to sleep on it, to figure out how I felt about
the story, and how I would feel if my son was 12-17 years old and reading this book.
This book is not Disney material. It shows that every decision has a consequence and
that sometimes even good decision have bad consequences. It is a hard message and one
that I would be amazed, if any adult has not experienced. It is for that reason, I feel this
book has merit. It educates every reader, no matter the age. I feel the use of the
profanity, the masturbation references, and negative representation are used in context
and add to the believability of the story. Do I wish tweens and teens did not cuss? Yes,
but in reality they do, and these are the years that using that language and seeing if their
environments tolerate it, will most likely be the difference between the adult who does or
does not choose to communicate that way. Do hormonal young adults masturbate? Yes,
and perhaps, this may be the first time for many teens that they will learn that it is natural
and there is nothing “wrong” with them. Do men separated from women often objectify
them, with little to no awareness that there is another way? Yes. This is a great
opportunity for discussion on realizing that what is being viewed is another thinking,
feeling human and exploring how they feel about being viewed this way, as well as how
it can be harmful to both the man and the woman. (Please feel free to insert young in
front of men and women, but I feel it is truly applies to all men and women, who are in
some way separated or isolated.) As I thought more on the topic of peer pressure, I began
to understand why the book might be introduced in middle school vs. high school. As the
sense of self develops, community/peer group perception and acceptance are very
powerful influences, but so are the desires to be an individual, now add hormones. This
is a complex time of life, and stories that are realistic will represent that. This story, if
read and discussed is ripe with opportunities to explore character, power and how it can
be used or misused, choosing “your battles”, and finally discussing that this book ends
but the life of Jerry Renault has not, how would the reader move on from this point? It
made me think of Nelson Mandela, of Maya Angelou, and even points in my life. Only
the book has ended. If we looked at just a snip-it of Nelson Mandela’s life he may be
rotting in a jail; Maya Angelou was homeless for a time at fourteen. This story ends on a
dismal note, and through discussion and exploration can it can reveal strengths, pitfalls,
and potential in the development of the reader.
Finally, parents upon enrollment are given the Controversial Materials Exception
form (Jefferson County Schools, 2014), which gives all parents the opportunity to review
materials prior to reading and/or request the use of alternative material. This provides the
parent(s) a method on monitoring their children’s reading materials without infringing on
the rights of other parents or children and their access to materials.
Therefore, I vote this book remain as part of the Jefferson Middle School curriculum.
Side note: I was amazed at how much I enjoyed writing this. When I finished this book,
I felt wretched. I felt so sad that this would be a reality and someday I would discuss
with my son. But alas, bubble wrap is suffocating. I actually had a nightmare about this
story. As a parent, it is so easy to try and gloss over or protect, sometimes because you
simply don’t want to deal with it and sometimes because it is just horrible. This
assignment has shown to me the importance of reading with my son now and until he is a
grown man. Books are wonderful, but the discussion exploring the emotions, events and
characters within this stories is vital.
Bibliography
American Library Association. (1991). 1991 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner .
Retrieved from American Library Association:
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/bookawards/margaretaedwards/maepre
vious/1991awardwinner
Chicopee, M. A. (Not provided). The Chocolate War. Retrieved from Teen Ink:
http://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/article/1893/The-Chocolate-War/
Common Sense Media. (2014). The Chocolate War. Retrieved from Common Sense
Media: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-chocolate-war
H.W. Wilson. (2014, January). Middle & Junior High School Core Collection. Retrieved
from H.W. Wilson: http://www.hwwilsoninprint.com/midjun_core.php
Jefferson County Schools. (2014). Forms & Documents. Retrieved from Jefferson
County Schools: http://jcschools.net/Download.asp?L=1&LMID=564563&PN=DocumentUploads&Divisi
onID=13138&DepartmentID=&SubDepartmentID=&SubP=&Act=Download&T
=1&I=241101
Jensen, K. (2013, May 17). The Chocolare War. Retrieved from Stacked:
http://www.stackedbooks.org/2013/05/the-chocolate-war-by-robert-cormier.html
Keeling, K. (1999). "The Misfortune of a Man Like Ourselves": Robert Cormier's The
Chocolate War as Aristotelian Tragedy. The Alan Review, 26(2), 9-12.
The Associated Press. (2000, June 14). Chocolate War author battles effort to ban book.
Retrieved from FreedomForum.org:
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12693