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 He looks so happy! I randomly met someone with this name the other day which dredged up childhood memories of reading books by the author of the same name, and I was struck by how depressing the two books I read by him were. These were After the First Death, a book in which the two "protagonists" are a literal terrorist and a depressed kid who commits suicide, and Tunes for Bears to Dance To, in which a young boy is coerced into destroying a holocaust survivor's life's work. I think The Chocolate War is his most famous and widely read book and even that is kind of famously downbeat and has been occasionally been banned in schools. Anyways, what's the deal with Robert Cormier? I've read through some synopses of other YA books he's written and they seem to almost universally be the opposite of uplifting. It kind of surprises me that his books are fairly popular given their target audience and how unsettling they are; at the same time I'm glad of it since kids are always more capable of dealing with disturbing subject matter than adults give them credit for. What even qualifies these books as Young Adult? Is it just because they mostly have teenage protagonists? Did anyone have to read Cormier in school? Are his books popular/taught outside the US? Am I the cheese?
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Jul 22, 2022 23:23
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 12:21 |
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I prefer RL Stine.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:11
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Cormier's stuff was popular in the UK when I was a kid. They're liked because they cater to kids at the age when they want to hear bleak stories about the world.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:11
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we read I Am the Cheese in 8th grade or, I did we were separated into groups and each group was supposed to read a different book and explain it to the class. it was I Am the Cheese; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Jacob Have I Loved; aaaaand... a fourth one. Number the Stars? anyway, nobody did what they were supposed to, that class was completely out of control but I read I Am the Cheese, and, I didn't get much out of it on paper, I like the idea of this story about a kid on a trip to see his dad and the details are just kinda fuzzy and wrong and he's really paranoid about something following him and the details of reality are not quite adding up because his memory's messed up and even before that he'd been lied to his whole life but like all children's literature assigned in middle school in the 90's it was written in the 70's by an elderly person remembering the 1930's so like he encounters a gang of popcorn eating thugs who eat popcorn and throw popcorn at him so of course a modern kid is gonna be like "what are you talking about? this isn't a thing that happens. why is your idea of a gang themed around their proximity to snack foods" or we would if we'd actually read it but instead it was just me because all my friends were in the Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry group and they were having, a total blast, it was completely unfair, I got stuck with a bunch of quiet weirdos and pretty read the book for lack of anything better to do, trying to make sense of a book that's already pretty disorienting with a peer group that was mostly just like "hah. cheese. I donno, I didn't read it, did you read it?" I guess I already spoiled it, it's shutter island, or owl creek bridge, however you like it. the... it didn't happen, the journey he's describing is all in his head and he's applying details from the mental facility he's in into the story. but it wasn't exactly a magical journey to begin with, the kid mostly would just not shut up about his bike. or he'll be like "the sign just said 'eats.' amy would've liked that, and I do too. nice and simple" and I'm like "shut up" then at the end his shrink is like "hm we should kill him :sinister:" then the last chapter is him regressing back into the bike fantasy. ok. probbly not a great book for a 12 year old, honestly, especially in the environment of, everybody is laughing because the book is called I Am the Cheese. I wonder if I'd get more out of it now
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Jul 23, 2022 02:54
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Cubone posted:I Am the Cheese I am the best character on the show
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Jul 23, 2022 02:54
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he went on to write the video game The Last Of Us 2
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Jul 23, 2022 03:23
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i am an English teacher and I never heard of him
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Jul 23, 2022 03:31
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Believe it or not OP, teenagers are cringelords and almost the distinguishing feature of YAF is featuring some kind of horrible depressing thing that either doesn't get fixed or becomes worse.
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Jul 23, 2022 03:35
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Hey! From the racks and stacks, it's the best on wax! How 'bout another double-golden-oldie-twin-spin-sound-sandwich from K-L-A-M in Portland? Iiiiiiit's... BOSS!!!!!
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Jul 23, 2022 19:23
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Heroes is a Robert Cormier book about a teenager whose face was blown off in WW2 who returns to his hometown at the end of the war with one mission: to murder his hero, a former coach/teacher/mentor. This is a hosed up book. No one should be reading it, regardless of age. Troubled teens especially shouldn't be reading it. Don't ever buy anyone a Robert Cormier book.
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Jul 24, 2022 05:00
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 12:21 |
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Heroes is a Robert Cormier book about a teenager whose face was blown off in WW2 who returns to his hometown at the end of the war with one mission: to murder his hero, a former coach/teacher/mentor. This is a hosed up book. No one should be reading it, regardless of age. Troubled teens especially shouldn't be reading it. Don't ever buy anyone a Robert Cormier book. classic Cormier!! i read a synopsis of this one and wasn't the mentor a rapist or something
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Jul 24, 2022 16:45
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