The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Although this book was written in the 70s, it is a timeless tale with themes that are still relevant today.

In an all boys school there is a secret society called the Vigils that creates "assignments" for select boys to complete. Archie creates the assignments and is relatively revered in the school. A change is coming at the school, though, when the headmaster is out and the current man in charge, Brother Leon, sets out a plot to sell 20,000 boxes of old Mother's Day chocolates. While the school is used to chocolate sales, it was only half this amount and Brother Leon calls upon the Vigils to make sure every box is sold. There's only one flaw in his plan and it's a new boy named Jerry Renault. At first Jerry says no to selling chocolates because of an assignment but when the time period is over, he continues to refuse to sell. Brother Leon is furious because this boy is disrupting the system and soon others begin the start thinking like Jerry. The Vigils aren't happy either, especially after they told him to start selling and he continues to refuse. Can order be brought back or will free will reign?

This novel plays on a lot of important themes for teens such as peer pressure, bullying, free will and standing up for what you believe in. That said, the message at the end of the book isn't that uplifting, even if it is a bit realistic because sometimes the bad guys to succeed and wills are broken. Some of the ideas in the book are a bit perposterous and the characters caricatures, but maybe you have to go extreme to get your point across. I would have liked a little bit more character development. I wanted to know a little bit more with regards to motivation for certain characters. Most of all though, I wanted to see the bad guys taken down a peg and that never really happened.

This book is realistic in the point that the good guys don't always succeed, but unrealistic in certain situations. My expectations and hopes left me disappointed with the book, but I think it has merit for the themes that it presents.
MMK

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Sparks wrote this novelization of a movie after he wrote the script for the movie starring Miley Cyrus.

This is another teenager sent to get to know absent parent story. I just wrote about Beige by Castellucci. In this story Ronnie is a rebellious goth girl and her father has a terrible secret. Things get off to a bad start when Ronnie meets the equally rebellious Blaze and scary Marcus at about the same time rich, perfect, athletic boy runs into her causing her to dump her drink down her front. There is also a sweet younger brother Jonah aged ten but sometimes sounding much younger or older.

Rather too easily Ronnie connects with Will the perfect boy rather than Marcus though Marcus and Blaze are always in the background, always causing problems.

Will and Ronnie further connect over their efforts to protect endangered turtle nests and their work at the local aquarium. Ronnie feels sorry for Blaze and tries to befriend her only to get in trouble with the law.

Jonah and his father are making a stained glass window for a church which was largely ruined by a fire of suspicious origins.

Ronnie was a concert pianist with great promise before her father left home, in her anger she abandoned her piano playing. Her father, also a concert pianist still plays and Ronnie is hateful about this.

Those are all the various conflicts that play themselves out in this lightweight story that is more popcorn & peanuts than Escargot and Caviar.

Sparks doesn't seem to have the dialogue of teens down very well, wording sometimes sound very stiff and old fashioned. I think Jonah's dialogue suffers too. Having said that teens who have enjoyed other Sparks novels should like this one as well. Its teary eyed chic lit with a little spirituality thrown in.