Robert Cormier

Who is Robert Cormier? Perhaps you've heard of "The Chocolate War" or
" Am the Cheese." He is the author of both books, as well as, several others for young adults.

In 1991, Robert Cormier received the MAE Award. The committee cited his novels: |The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, and After the First Death.
He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. Cormier says, “I was a skinny kid living in a ghetto-type neighborhood wanting the world to know that I existed.” When his own children were small, he worked as a newspaper reporter and wrote at night.
He writes a story over and over until he is satisfied. “With each novel, I fill a shopping bag with material that has been rewritten.” He wants to make the story as true as possible, yet censors often dislike his books, and this surprises him.
The teen years, explains Cormier, are not a “peppermint world of fun and frolic.” He tries to show the “strength of young adults—their resilience, their ability to absorb the blows teenage life delivers.”
"Robert Cormier was widely acclaimed for his powerful and disturbing novels for young adult readers, though his realistic subject matter-including murder, sex, and terminal illness-at times made his work controversial. His novels often involve teenage protagonists faced with difficult, uncompromising situations."
(Cormier, Robert. Contemporary Authors. Page 4. Literature Resource Center.) For this reason, his books are frequently challenged in schools and public libraries.Robert Cormier, born in 1925, lived all his life in Leominster, Massachusetts. "He was born a devout Catholic whose most famous novel depicts a parochial school where hatred and cruelty flourish. He was a gentle effacing man who could create searingly evil fictional characters." (School Library Journal 12/00. Page 24)
The list of awards won by Robert Cormier is lengthy to say the least. In addition to numerous Best Book for Young Adults awards for his individual works, he won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in young adult literature in 1991.
Robert Cormier passed away on November 5, 2000 at the age of 75. He had just completed a manuscript for a new novel prior to his death and his publisher hopes to see it in print someday.

---Laura
Teen Advisory Board

The Chocolate War

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Watching someone else take a stand is easy. Doing it yourself can be absolutely terrifying. That's what Jerry Renault discovers when he refuses to participate in his school's annual candy drive. You see, everyone, and I mean everyone, at Jerry's private school sells the chocolate as part of the school fundraiser. People do it without question, but this year Jerry decides he just isn't going to sell any chocolate. He doesn't think it will be a big deal. Boy is he ever wrong.
The problem is that Brother Leon, the teacher in charge of the chocolate sale, went out on a limb buying more chocolates than he was supposed to and spending more money than he should have. Now it will be his neck on the line if each student does not sell his allotted amount of chocolate.
So Brother Leon recruits the school club, the Vigils, which is really a vicious gang to put some pressure on Jerry. The Vigils do their best to scare Jerry into submission. They call and threaten him on the phone; they get the school bully to beat him up; they vandalize his school locker and its contents.
Will Jerry decide to sell the chocolates? What will happen if he doesn't?

The Rag and Bone Shop

They needed a confession.
A seven-year-old girl was found dead-her body lying lifeless in the woods. She had been murdered-brutally beaten over the head with a blunt object.
The town of Monument is stunned. But the citizens are exerting great pressure on the local police to find the perpetrator-the sooner, the better. So the police chief brings in Trent, an interrogator with the special skill of getting confessions out of suspects.
The police need a confession because there is no physical evidence. No witnesses. No weapons. No fingerprints. If they get a confession, they can lock-up their suspect.
Their suspect is twelve-year-old Jason Dorrant. He was apparently the last person to see the victim alive. Jason feels sad when he thinks about what happened to Alicia, but he doesn't think he knows anything. He is willing to tell the police what he does know.
Trying to make everything appear aboveboard, the police invite Jason along with several other local kids in for questioning. But what they don't tell Jason's parents is that he is their prime suspect, and once they have Jason at the police station, Trent is going to get a confession out of Jason.
So now Jason and Trent are alone in a small, hot room, trying to work out the truth of what has happened. Trent believes that the questioning will bring out both the truth and a confession. But what would happen if the truth got in the way of getting a confession? You see, the most important thing to Trent and the police is the confession-not the truth.