The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier

Of all the books on the list of books to study in the childrens literature course this one struck me as "the boy book" (which is not a complaint as such but there may be a complaint over the general lit course coming). Female characters are there as sex objects, nothing more and I'm pretty sure they speak less than 5 words thoughout the story.

It's a book that I have never read before. It was the second option in high school when my all girls class had to read "boys books" our teacher assigned this one or the Lord of the Flies. I got Flies and from what I heard from the others in the class they sounded like they wanted Flies rather than Chocolate War so I didn't bother looking into it.

The Chocolate War is the story of an all boys Catholic high school complete with sadistic priests, secret societies and hazing rituals that get out of control quickly. Each year students of Trinity need to sell a quota of fund-raising else they get into trouble from their teachers and the secret society. It is the story of one boys rebellion against the system that treats him and his freshman classmates unfairly. Jerry Renault is assigned by the "Vigils" to spend 10 days refusing the quota of chocolates that he's supposed to sell. On the eleventh day he's supposed to agree to sell. But he refuses on principle. At that point the rest of the boys at the school turn on him. From the grudging respect he is initially given from the rest of the school boys to when he pushes to far and they turn on him and things turn even worse for Jerry.

Caught in the mess of his own making is Archie the head of "The Vigils" who initially assigns him the task of refusing the chocolates and then has to deal with the consequences when students begin to pull out of the sale and follow Jerry's lead. Archie is held responsible by Father Leon. The acting head of the school who is cruel, and hard on the boys. He is almost sadistic in nature and takes pleasure in picking out boys to humiliate and bully each day.

Jerry's actions illuminate the corruption that underlies everything in the school. It is insidious and running through every aspect of school life.

The ending of the story is sudden and horrific. I'd be interested in reading the sequel to see how it goes but it leaves you wondering if Jerry is going to survive the ordeal he has faced.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor

When the course structure was first released the lit students looked into what books we got to study over the 4 years of learning to be a High School English teacher.  Sdly the initial list was disapointing to nearly the entire class who looked into it mainly because the books were by dead, white, old men.  First years subjects were Classic English Literature so it consisted of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne and Milton.  Contemporary Children's Literature was next and in that one we got several female writers and based on the structure of the time our one indigenous author Doris Pilkington when we studied Beyond the Rabbit Proof Fence. 

Now that i've seen the newer list of childrens books there is actually one more by a non-white author.  And that is this book.  I'm sure I studied this book in high school but none of it came back to me as I was reading it so it seemed like a fresh book to me.  It was powerful, brilliant and sad.  It is the story of Cassie, a 9 year old black girl living in Mississippi in the 1930's.  Racism and prejudice are still well ingrained in the South and with the exception of young Jeremy who tries to befriend Cassie and her brothers and Mr Jamieson who supports the African American community as best he can there is nothing positive to say about the white characters.

Cassie and her family on the other hand are wonderful.  Her mother is strong willed and proud of her family and her position as teacher at the local school for black children, her grandmother is warm and supportive - working their land and giving advice to the children and trying to shelter them from the world at the same time as trying to show them how to get by in it with as little trouble as possible.  Cassie's father is often away trying to make money so that the family can keep their land but when he is at home he is a powerful and well respected man of his community.  His parents bought the land they are living on the first 200 acres outright and the next 200 is mortgaged so he's always worried about taxes and the bills involved in keeping his land but he does not want to ever lose it.  The connection to the land is important to the whole family who are proud to have something that is their own.  Considering David's father and mother were born into slavery this is an important symbol for them.

The racial conflicts are constant.  The book opens with a "burning" and there are references to "night men" and lynchings throughout the story.  When Cassie's Uncle Hammer returns in a big car that is his own her grandmother worries that it will anger the white community who cannot afford such things and instead bring them down to hurt him and "put him back in his place".  Hammer's temper is often spoken of and when trouble brews up the most he is quickly told to leave town rather than stay and exacerbate the problems even more.

The other books I have read for the childrens course have all been aimed at the under 10 age group.  This is definitely for older readers and I found it both enjoyable and interesting.  It's beautifully written and a book that I would have no problems teaching a high school class out of.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Still quickly running though childrens books and still avoiding Australian Lit.  Mainly i'm blaming Ebay and the seller who I bought off last week.  I really want to start with that book but it still hasn't arrived yet so it's obviously a sign that I should continue with childrens lit. 


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is another of the books that I loved as a child so coming back to it as an adult was interesting.  I get that there are issues with the original publication and yeah it's racist and wrong to be talking about the Oompa Loompas as African Pygmies being paid in Cocao beans but since the re-release with Quentin Bryce's new illustrations I kinda forgot all about that.  Wrong of me I know but it didn't occur till I checked Wikipedia because I was sure I remembered Charlie tasting a sweet that wasn't in my book (turns out it's from the movie). 

This one is really different to both Alice and Wizard because I have no emotional connection to the movie.  I saw the Gene Wilder version growing up but I didn't love.  I really enjoyed the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version but that was more because I am a fan of both Burton and Depp but the book has always been foremost in my mind.

Is it a great book?  Probably not but it is fun and enjoyable and the Buckets are sweet and the greedy kids getting their comeuppance is well timed and perfectly mean and Willy himself is crazy as a loon but I really do wish there were more like him in the world.  And yeah I still love the Oompa Loompa songs. 

I'm thinking that once i've done the books I might have to do a re-watch of all the movies as well just to see how different they seem to me now.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Still reading the Childrens fiction list as opposed to the Australian fiction because these ones are way more fun.  Besides a lot of these i've read before and know pretty well so it's more a case of re-reading quickly so I can gather some thoughts as opposed to plodding through and analysing a text.

To start with I have to say I'd really like the drugs Lewis Carroll was on cause seriously this book is weird.  I mean I loved it as a child but now that i'm reading it as an adult it just sounds like the most intense drug trip ever.  Then again anything with randomly anthropomorphised animals strikes me as trippy and more than a little wrong Similar case in point... Wicked.  I love Wicked but there are some bits of that book I never want to read again (yes Animal Orgy chapter I'm thinking of you).  And while I loved Alice when I was a child now as an adult I thinks she's irritating, annoying and far too spoiled for her own good. 

Still there are characters and bits that I love.  I love the imagery of playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos.  I love the nonsense poetry and all the plays on words in it.  And the Hatter, Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar are awesome. 

Getting back to the book was interesting because while I have read it I've since seen several adaptations and re-imaginings.  They range from the Disney cartoon, to the live action tv miniseries and finally to last years Tim Burton film which I completely loved.  And I think that is the main source of my problem with the character Alice.  I wanted Mia Wasikowska's Alice who is capable and thoughtful and brave and who gets to slay the Jabberwock and takes charge of her life and escapes for adventures.  I forgot that Alice is a little girl who is dreamy and whiny and confused by her situation and usually thinks far too highly of herself. 

So it was interesting to get back too.  Next I think will be Wizard of Oz where I will have far more problems thanks to Gregory Maguire and my love of Elphaba.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - CS Lewis

Despite the fact I read a lot as a child and read a lot of fantasy novels I never read any of The Chronicles of Narnia.  When the movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out I made sure I read it first and started to read the whole set but got distracted.  I always try and read it before seeing the movie though and since this is on the Children's fiction book list for next year and the movie is out in 3 weeks I figured I might as well get it out of the way.

To me it seems like a simple quest narrative.  King wants to go see/find/do/fight something.  King goes off to do it bringing with him loyal subjects.  King does it.  THey all return home and celebrations occur.  In this book the quest is to rescue the seven missing lords and to see the end of the world.  Returning to Narnia are Lucy and Edmund Pevensie to help King Caspian and coming through the painting was their cousin Eustace.  Eustace possibly shows the biggest growth in the book going from irritating spoilt brat to a decent human being (by way of a turning into a dragon - literally).

There's not much to say about the book beyond I liked it.  I can see why the Chronicles are considered classics of childrens fiction and I really do love Lucy and Edmund.  I think my problem getting through some of the other Chronicles was the lack of Pevensies but before they do the next movies I'll have to at least try them again. 

It's hard not to compare this to the trailers for Dawn Treader that I have seen over the last couple of weeks and I think they've added a lot of story to it.  I'm just hoping they haven't cut a lot of the good stuff to make way for it.