Daily Archives: January 10, 2010

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
My biggest mistake was assuming that The Chocolate War would be a humorous book, much like The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt (which is, by far, the better read).

I don’t remember what prompted me to put this book on my list, but I wish I did remember so I could smack myself for thinking it. This is the story of Jerry and how he stands up against a secret society in his private, Catholic school. There’s examples of mischief and brutality spread throughout the book and it makes me wonder why anyone would actually recommend this story to a young boy (Classroom 19 anyone?).

Overall, I was disappointed by the story and it didn’t do anything for me personally.

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The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Welsh Girl is a story in three parts. There’s the story of Rotheram, the German-Jew who escaped from Germany to England and is now placed in charge of the interrogation of Hess. There’s also the story of Karsten, a young 18 year old German officer who surrenders to the British and is taken to a POW camp in Northern Wales. And then, there’s Esther – a 17 year old Welsh barmaid who lives in the sleepy Welsh town the POW camp has been built in.

The book is beautifully written. The descriptions are vivid and the dialog is interesting. Each character was fascinating, there just wasn’t enough to each of them..which takes me to what I did not like about the book.

It was too short to truly tell each persons story. Rotheram was used as more of a tool to give historical background and narrate the story of Esteher and Karsten. Because he was in the book, however, Esther and Karsten’s story was cut short and we were only given snippets of what happened in the “ever after”.

Overall, a more tragic story then I was expecting.. but not all books have a happily ever after.

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