The Chocolate War
			Cormier, Robert. 1974. THE CHOCOLATE WAR. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books. ISBN: 0440944597
				"No one was allowed to breathe a word about The Vigils. Officially, The Vigils did not exist. How could a school condone an organization like The Vigils? The school allowed it to function by ignoring it completely, pretending it wasn't there" (Page 25).
	As the assigner of The Vigils, Archie creates a list of boys from the school and assigns a task for each one to complete. In THE CHOCOLATE WAR, Jerry Renault has been given the order to refuse to sell chocolates, a voluntary program that the school does annually in order to raise money. All goes smoothly until the assignment is over and Jerry continues to refuse, an act that seems to deliberately go against Archie and The Vigils. Like the poster hanging in Jerry’s locker, Jerry finds himself questioning “Do I dare disturb the universe?”      “In 1974, author Robert Cormier dared to disturb our universe when this book was first published” (Amazon review). The story takes place in a private Catholic high school, where the teachers and parents are relatively uninvolved in the story, except one teacher, Brother Leon, who is as crafty and corruptive as The Vigils and actually seeks their assistance in selling chocolates. The main characters are the boys in The Vigil and the boy who performing the tasks assigned by The Vigils. The story is written in third person, and the different chapters touch on different characters and their thoughts and feeling towards everything, allowing us to see that everyone has a role but everyone is discontent in his role.      THE CHOCOLATE WAR is filled with intense scenarios, most of which revolve around Jerry. Readers see him coping with his mother’s death, his father’s lack of attention, his desire to get the girl he admires, and his need to play football. Readers understand as much as possible, since Jerry does not completely understand either, why he continues to refuse to sell the chocolates. The emotions and feelings of Jerry and every other character are real and honest, “cleverly written with a good sense of the realistic and a good ear for dialogue, qualities that will attract any reader” (Bestsellers review).      Due to the situations in the story, some descriptive violence occurs. Cormier writes so vividly that the readers will feel as if they are participating in the fight scene or at least physically watching it. “Vicious and violent mob cruelty in a boys’ prep school is not a new theme but Cormier makes it compellingly immediate” (Kirkus reviews). Amazon.com review. Available at http://www.amazon.com Kirkus Reviews, starred review. Available at http://www.amazon.com and on the back cover of THE CHOCOLATE WAR.. Bestsellers review. Available on the back cover of THE CHOCOLATE WAR.                                                     YA Literature Home Page.