|
 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?
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2022 23:23
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 09:13 |
|
|
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
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2022 16:45
|
|