Robert Cormier Books

Here again is the dark world of Jerry Renault, 'The Goober', Archie Costello, Obie, Carter, the loner Janza, Brother Leon and even Tubs Casper. Cormier once again describes so well how frightening and cruel a school-yard can be. Once again Archie Costello and the Vigils hang like sinister spiders waiting for their prey.

Cormier, however, has been careful not to fall into the trap of simply repeating his earlier, highly successful book The Chocolate War (Readers Circle). This second novel certainly goes 'beyond' that first story. There is, for example, the new character of Ray Bannister, a 'transfer' student from another town, rejected by the others boys but hiding remarkable talents. Also we see how earlier events have changed people like Jerry Renault. David Caroni is a very interesting transformed character. He is the once 'A' grade student who was forced by Brother Leon to be a 'snitch'. Most importantly this second book centers around Obie. He was once Archie's right hand man, but now is in love and seems to be drifting away from the Vigils. Will Obie finally redeem himself, or are the temptations of evil too strong?

asked can a bad system be defeated? This book asks what motivates us to do wrong, and what are the consequences of wrong doing? These are surprisingly heavy questions for teenage novels and Cormier's analysis is brutally honest. These questions are, however, not out of the scope of the intended audience.

Here again is the dark world of Jerry Renault, 'The Goober', Archie Costello, Obie, Carter, the loner Janza, Brother Leon and even Tubs Casper. Cormier once again describes so well how frightening and cruel a school-yard can be. Once again Archie Costello and the Vigils hang like sinister spiders waiting for their prey.

Cormier, however, has been careful not to fall into the trap of simply repeating his earlier, highly successful book The Chocolate War (Readers Circle). This second novel certainly goes 'beyond' that first story. There is, for example, the new character of Ray Bannister, a 'transfer' student from another town, rejected by the others boys but hiding remarkable talents. Also we see how earlier events have changed people like Jerry Renault. David Caroni is a very interesting transformed character. He is the once 'A' grade student who was forced by Brother Leon to be a 'snitch'. Most importantly this second book centers around Obie. He was once Archie's right hand man, but now is in love and seems to be drifting away from the Vigils. Will Obie finally redeem himself, or are the temptations of evil too strong?

asked can a bad system be defeated? This book asks what motivates us to do wrong, and what are the consequences of wrong doing? These are surprisingly heavy questions for teenage novels and Cormier's analysis is brutally honest. These questions are, however, not out of the scope of the intended audience.

Denny Colbert is just an average teenage boy. His father was, too, until he was involved in the terrible event of a collapsing balcony, killing twenty-two children. Denny's father receives hate letters, and disturbing phone calls day and night. He has never done anything about the phone calls, he just listens patiently to the angry voice, and then hangs up. Because of the hate in the phone calls, Denny is never allowed to answer the phone. Wanting to just be a regular teenage boy, Denny breaks the rules and answers the telephone. With the nearing anniversary of the balcony collapse, Denny is troubled with interviews about his father, a beautiful girl who rides his bus, and the addictive caller who might become deadly trouble.

Robert Comier was an author who liked to show how hard teenage life can be. I think he accomplished that in this book. He showed some things that go on in teenagers' heads. The book was not as believable as it could have been; this sort of thing does not happen to most people, but it is a good book. "In The Middle of The Night" is suspenseful and plot twisting. I would recommend it to any reader who likes an adventurous mystery. Robert Cormier died on November 2, 2000.

Robert Cormier is not known to sugarcoat his stories, and "Take Me Where the Good Times Are" is no exception. As a writer, Cormier's main strength is creating realistic and flawed heroes who are not always above the fear and temptations of daily life. In short, his characters are like you and me, and if they're lucky, they'll do the right thing. However, if Cormier's characters do make some tragic mistakes, they'll learn from it.

Tommy Bartin, the protagonist from "Take Me Where the Good Times Are," is a 70-year-old resident at the local Dorchester County, MA poor house who was brought in because he could no longer live or work on his own. For the past three years, Tommy has been bragging to the other residents about how he'll return to town, get his job and apartment back, and in short start life anew. When another resident leaves Tommy some cash, he sees his opportunity to go back to the life he left behind. Like the typical Cormier hereo, Tommy lives in a world of self-delusion and when confronted with the truth, he tries to hide from it. Tommy finds that his town has changed, his beloved factory closed down, and his friends fearful of this embarrassing ghost from the past. Tommy drifts from bar to bar, hoping to find a way to be useful again, and to regain his self-respect.

Although Tommy is in denial, he's not stupid or insensitive. Most of his plans end in heartbreak and tragedy as he learns to accept he's not the man he used to be and, more importantly, that maybe the man he used to be wasn't that wonderful to begin with. However, eventually, he will learn to balance his hopes with the harsh reality of the world, like we all have to. Perhaps he will succeed; after all how can anyone live in such an ugly world without at least a little denial?

As always, Cormier has delivered a story that features flawed but sympathetic people involved in a simple but engaging plot. Highly recommended.

Brilliant & disturbing warning of the horrors of American life.

Yes, horrors.

Should be read by all thoughtful teens.

Another in the group of young adult books I bought for my wife to help her develop her reading skills before we get to the states and she has a go at attending college in America.
I had my doubts about this one when I picked it on Amazon, but it sounded kind of interesting in a "Dead Poet's Society" meets "1984" kind of way, and I gave it a shot. It was a disappointment.
For such a simple story, it seems that it would be easy enough for the author to execute one of the most basic tasks of novel writing: resolving the conflict in a way that effects a change in the main character. With The Chocolate War, however, Robert Cormier has not only failed to make a change in his main character - he has failed to even choose a main character.
** This review may spoil the novel a bit if you read further.**
That is, the author tries to have his cake and eat it too by maintaining two main characters - Archie and Jerry - throughout the entire book. Instead, however, he simply ends up with a big cake-y mess at the end, where nothing changes, the main characters engage in some final meaningless self-reflection, and the reader hardly cares.
The real disappointment is that there were multiple entry points in the final few chapters where the author could easily have chosen an effective outcome. Obie's anger, Carter's violent jealousy, Janza's self-doubt before it all gets started, the black box, Leon's mysterious presence, and even Brother Jacques' cutting the power - any of these points could have lead to a more satisfactory resolution. But each of these points passed by quickly, as if the author were afraid to take up the task of resolving the story in favor of one group or another and instead simply let things peter out with no resolution, no epiphany, and indeed, no point in having read or written this story at all.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think that all novels need to follow cookie-cutter patterns, and I see nothing wrong with leaving some loose ends or some ambiguity about the characters' futures. But my final summary of this novel is that Robert Cormier had an idea one day and started writing about it, and then one day he kind of ran out of ideas, and at that point he stapled on the back cover and published the book. That's not post-modern or exploratory or playing with the medium of the novel - that's just bad writing. Not recommended.

I would think that having some perspective on the world would help me to think more kindly on this book, but it doesn't. I read this book when I was in junior high school, a time when I should have been able to better relate to it. But I couldn't. The characters were flawed, yes, and that's fine, but I couldn't grasp anything redeemable about them either. Cormier's depiction of male teenage masturbation is something he seems a little too fond of, and is referenced several times throughout. Sure a young man's sexual awakening is an awkward and uncomfortable thing to address, but was it really necessary to address it that many times. Once is plenty. The Chocolate War isn't the only title that Cormier seems to favor referencing this as well and I also remember an interview that we read after having (unfortunately) read several of his other books, in which he said that in this title he had an entire chapter in which one of the characters masturbates and thinks a little bit. He decided to cut it out when he realized that it didn't help further the story along. This book also dealt with football. Now as I am not all that interested in sports or competition, it comes as no surprise that this was a book that was difficult for me to get through. But that is not to say that I wouldn't like it. Look at my review for Wait 'Til Next Year. That book was told in the language of baseball, and I loved it! But this book didn't win me over and neither did After the First Death. Robert Cormier is an author that I don't care for, and I honestly wonder if his books are geared towards young readers, or his way of working out some form of sexual repression for teenage boys.

Jerry Renault decides to "disturb the universe" by refusing to sell chocolates in his private school's annual fund-raiser. He angers the militant and ambitious Brother Leon, as well as the school's hazing-crazy secret society, the Vigils. Jerry is alienated and harassed for his revolutionary rebellion against the mob and its power-mad leader Archie. Excellent (though dated) story about adolescence and school culture and human nature. Disturbing and full of truth. Grade: B+

I think this is a great YA book. I read this for an assignment while getting my Masters in Library Science. While the book is controversial, a great teacher can discuss the elements in the book while holding the attention of the class. There are some great points of discussion.

Henry is a very sad boy. His older brother recently died, and his parents are living in the depths of sorrow. In order to escape their memories, they have moved themselves and Henry to a new town, where he doesn't have any friends and where they live next door to a mental hospital. When Henry's knee is broken and in a cast, he watches an old man leave the hospital every day and come back every evening. When Henry's knee is better, he follows the man.

Mr. Levine, the man Henry follows, is a Holocaust survivor. Every day he goes to the community art center, where he is working on carving an exact wooden replica of the village the Nazis destroyed, where he used to live.

Henry tells his employer about this man. But Henry's employer is evil. He makes Henry promises--he tells him all of the nice things he will do for Henry. But he will only do these things if Henry does something awful for him. If Henry doesn't do it, this man promises to ruin his life.

I liked the characters of Mr. Levine and the man who runs the art center. They are both very kind and very strong. I liked how Henry resolves his problem and gains a sort of power. I was frustrated by the fact that the evil characters always seemed to be much stronger and more powerful than the good characters, though.

Very good book. The author elevated our interest well with the story as well as the emotions it carries. My son and I both enjoyed it.

The book was very interesting. The characters helped a lot to, each of them helped make the book even more interesting. Mr. Levine with his little wooden village, Henry and his curiosity (it's a gift and a curse), and Mr.Hairston, well it wouldn't be that interesting of a book if everybody was nice. Mr.Hairston did help to spice things up a little bit with his little scheme and his always moody attitude. Other than the ending which I thought was rather sudden, the book was in all pretty good.

This compelling novel written by Robert Cormier is about a young boy, named Henry who moves to a new town after the death of his brother. Henry works at a grocery store. His boss, Mr. Hairston, hears about Henry's new friend, Mr. Levine. When Mr. Hairston found out that Mr. Levine was a jew he ordered Henry to ruin Mr. Levine's model village that he had worked so hard on. If Henry does not do what he is told his life would be ruined. Henry is faced with a very important decision. To find out whether he makes the right decision you will need to read the book.

With the troops from WWII just reentering the job market, eleven-year-old Henry Cassavant is lucky to work at the Corner Market owned by Mr. Hairston. Even if his boss is a bigot.

Henry's family is going through hard times. His brother recently died, and his family's moved to a new town to work through the grieving process. His mother is working multiple jobs to help pay the bills. His father is hit the hardest, falling into a deep depression that sends him to "the hospital across town" for help.

Through simple curiosity, Henry befriends the elderly Mr. Levine, a Holocaust survivor who lives in the "Crazy House" next door to Henry's family. His friendship with the old man, contrasted with the racism of his boss, makes for a crazy end to the story.

Don't let this novel's length deceive you...TUNES FOR BEARS TO DANCE TO is a short, powerful little read that tackles the deep topics of racism, depression, and child abuse. Henry's story will no doubt leave readers thinking and wondering: What would we do in the same situation? What does it mean to be a good person? How far would we go to make ends meet?

With cutthroat tension, Robert Cormier reminds us all that sometimes the greatest evils lurk in the most familiar of places. Sometimes, they're inside ourselves.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Fine craftmanship is the hallmark for Robert Cormier's storytelling abilities. This book is different from his other works. Each short story begins with an introduction that focuses on a different concept for writing. He not only tells the story, the introduction tells how he came up with the story idea. For example, the introduction to the first story focuses on choosing your perspective when writing. The themes of the story are love and the agony of middle age. Mr. Cormier uses the short stories to model his craftmanship for other writers. If you are looking for his usual work, this book isn't like the others and you might want to keep looking. If you are looking for insight into the craftmanship of writing, this is a great book!

Have you ever felt like you were living the story that you were reading? Well that is how I felt reading 8 Plus 1 by Robert Cormier. It is a collection of 9 short stories. The one that I enjoyed the most was the story called "Bunny Berigan----Wasn't He a Musician or Something." In this story I felt like it was very detailed, you just get trapped into the story. I liked the fact that Robert Cormier was so specific about the story that he just made me feel as if I knew the characters and as if I was part of the story.
I felt like it related to everyday life, it wasn't just fiction story, I felt as it was very realistic. It is stuff that could happen every day.
It was kind of difficult at the same time because they are all different stories but the characters are all kind of in the same setting and situation, for example he used the same characters and the same situations in a couple of the stories.( when I first started to read it I thought it was all one big story). The stories are all in the same setting and in the same time period. Also the stories are all kind of based on family issues and depression for all of settings of all the stories.
I have heard that Robert Cormier actually put together stuff that actually has happened to him and created it in to this book. I think that it just is amazing to be so open about your whole life.
In conclusion I thought that the book 8 Plus 1 was pretty awesome it had some bad and some good, but mostly good. It was very interesting.

Eight Plus One is a collection of short stories inspired by Cormier's life as a father and teenager - three set during the great depression, four from the view of a father, and five as a teenager.

`The Moustache' is from the view of a teenager who grows a moustache. He visits his grandmother, who thinks he is her husband.

`Mine on Thursday' describes a father's weekly day-out with his natural daughter. He lets her go on a ride in a fun park, but she comes out depressed from the experience. The father comes to realises that he does not own his daughter on Thursday.

`Another of Mikes Girls' shows how a teenager guy goes out with an attractive girl, but eventually split up. The father, who narrates the story, knows that she was just another of Mike's Girls.

`President Cleveland, where are you?' is set during the depression where card collecting and trading was the trend.

`A bad time for Fathers' shows the depressing time for a father when his daughter leaves to college.

`Protestants Cry, too', is a short story on religious discrimination, where a Canadian teenager becomes engaged to a Protestant.

`Guess What? I Almost Kissed my father Goodnight', is the story of a teenager's discovery that his father is all too human.

`My first Negro' shows how an African American and a White American can be friends if they break the barrier of discrimination.

`Benny Berigan - Wasn't he a Musician or Something?' is a short story of a father's friend leaving his wife for another woman who, though extremely attractive, will one day loose her beauty.

As much as I hate to admit this, 8+1 was so flat and monotonous that I could barely finish it. Cormier's purposeless stories meant nothing to my mind, and as the ALAN Reviews calls him "a sensitive loving writer", I prefer the Cormier that writes the engaging, page-turning thrillers that I've read before. Much rather than this insignifigant collection.

8 plus 1 is a very well known book by Robert Cormier. This book is intended for young adults. Cormiers draws from his past life experiences to come up with his fictional yet realistic characters and plots. For instance he uses the Depression as a setting for many of his stories. The stories include everyday and sometimes sensitive themes for the growing generation, like stereotyping and prejudice issues. Before each story, Cormier uses an introduction to each story to give a general backround. By reading this book, I have gained a stronger sense of life through his character's problems and solutions. These interesting and ever maturing characters with their suspensueful plots kept me constantly intertwined with the story. The following are less desirable qualities about the book. For the fact that Cormier uses the same characters for some of his stories, it makes it a little confusing. Also some other events that he uses for his plot are offensive or perhaps shocking to a more sensitive viewer. Overall, Robert Cormier uses themes that involve regularly occurring problems that previous authors dared not venture.

The book was ok but it was confusing.I liked the book because bikes interest me.After you get into the book it starts to make sense.

Considering the unusual complexity of I Am the Cheese for a young adult novel, Jennifer Keely has written a surprisingly shallow analysis/history. The book is written at a reading level closer to the younger end of the book's readers, which is fine, but she fails to give much insight into the novel beyond quoting numerous newspaper reviews (some of which are obviously, in hindsight, ridiculous) and she leaves out much of the controversy that The Chocolate War has stirred up over the years (one of the most frequently banned books in schools), although she mentions that book quite a lot. There is also scant mention of the major motion picture adapted from I Am the Cheese, which might be a useful research/teaching tool for young readers. Unless you're writing a paper for an English class, Understanding I Am the Cheese is worth flipping through at your public library, but not worth purchasing.

Most teachers should know how to present this material without any help. Unfortunately, the help that is provided in this manual really is no help. One almost wonders if the author truly has any educational background or experience.

I ordered this unit plan hoping it would give me some useful ideas for teaching this book. However, there are many noticeable errors. In addition, it does not quite cover the book to a satisfactory level. I had my ninth graders read the book, but the questions and activities in the unit plan were below the level of my students. However, there are some good suggestions that can be altered to fit your class, and it is nice to have tests pre-done. Although with the number of errors, I've had to go through everything with a fine-tooth comb and retype segments.