The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier is about a twelve year old boy, Jason Dorrant, who is enjoying his summer vacation. Then, a seven year old girl, who is Jason's friend's sister, shows up dead in her backyard, and the last person to see her was Jason. The entire town waits impatiently while a big time interrogator figueres out if Jason is the murderer.
This book is a very quick read. It always keeps you going and wanting to read more. But that's about it for its positives qualities. This book feels very unrealistic because a twelve year old boy, in middle school, hangs out with his eight year old sister and a seven year old girl. This does not seem very realistic. The characters are very mature for their ages. The seven-year-old is able to do a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of a red cardinal. The eight-year-old is already writing her own detectives stories, too. The characters needed to be older in order to fit their personalities. I found this book interesting, yet, unrealistic which is why I give it 3 stars.

After a normal, typical day of play of a few neighborhood kids, a seven-year-old girl is found dead--murdered. There are no leads, murder weapon, or clues in the case. The police department, reacting from all the pressure of the townspeople, follow a gut instinct and begin to lean heavily on a twelve-year-old, male suspect who had been one of the last people to see the girl alive.
A hot shot interrogator is called in on the case to make the boy confess. He has never in his career failed to get a confession. Will he get one this time? Will it be a truthful one?
This novel will hold your attention throughout. It's full of murder, suspense, and intrigue. And, get ready for a surprise ending that leaves you stumped! Robert Cromier is one of the best writers of young adult literature that I have ever read.

The Rag and Bone Shop, Robert Cormier's last book before his death, is not for the young or faint of heart.
Interrogated by an expert, 12 yr. old Jason cannot avoid linking himself to the murdered 7 yr old. Does what he say cause him to become someone different? In the windowless interrogation room he perceives the double-edged sword of reality and its underlying currents of suspicion and need. This book is for mature readers because the seemingly simple story twists and turns into a stark fatal attraction. Are truth and justice found in the rag and bone shop? The suspense builds with each answer that Jason gives. Like writing an epitaph on a tombstone, author Robert Cormier lures the reader into formulating and answering a poignant question. And not until the end does he...reader, this is a master at work; you'll not want to close the cover of this powerful, slim book.

The Chocolate War is a very interesting book that shows the effects of peer pressure on highschool kids, and at the same time, tells about a boy that fights back agaist other kids that THINK they are more powerful. The book is set in a private Catholic school for boys in the 1970's. The school has an annual tradition of selling chololates in which the main character, Jerry Renault, refuses to participate in. The Vigils are the main cause of his protest against the chocolate sale. "The Vigils" is a group of boys that is understood to rule the school. They test younger students to see if they have the potential to be a Vigil by giving them assignments. Jerry's assignment was to refuse to participate in the chocolate sale for ten days. Everyone, especially Brother Leon, gets irritated with him. Since the chocoalte sale is traditional, and EVERYONE always participates, the other students see this as weird. After the ten days are up, Jerry still refuses to sell the chocolates. He does this as a protest against the Vigils because they tell him to start sellng them. The author used the chocolate sale to symbolize society. Everyone does the same thing everyone else does. It's just "normal." Jerry Renault stepped outside of what was "normal," and therefore he was looked upon as being and outsider. In the end, Jerry sticks with his decision to not sell the chocolates and proves that not everyone does what everyone else does.

I feel I need to defend this novel, especially after the plethora of reviews from December 17th. Often in childrens/YA novels good v. evil is played out in fantasy terms (witches, demons, etc, but this novel disturbs the universe and places real people in real situations. A freshman at a private high school decides to "disturb the universe", and soon realizes that he may have done overstepped his bounds. The shifting narrative is very distinct and unique, yet sometimes confusing. This is a great novel for classroom discussion with some strong themes: to include, courage & cowardice, peer pressure, victimization, individualism, good v. evil and god and religion. The ending is unconventional and truely climatic, can you remember when you first realized that life is not fair, and sometimes doesn't come close to being fair? This book opened up the new genre of YA literature, and Cormier certainly "disturbed the universe" with its publication. This book is constantly under the eye of parent groups who would like to see it "banned" or placed on a restricted list...because that is the case, it should be required reading for all teenagers. If you are younger, you may want to read Spinelli's WRINGER: a story so foul, so horrifying that it should be shelved next to Cormier's The Chocolate War.

As a young adult librarian, I will continue to offer Cormier's books because he refuses to compromise the truth as he sees it.

For an indepth look at Cormier's writing try: PRESENTING ROBERT CORMIER Twayne Publishers, 1989

The Chocolate War is a multileveled masterpiece! On the surface are Jerry and the other kids who attend a middle class private school, that seems to be religiously affiliated, but inside are issues of: authority, self-perception, puberty, decision making, good vs. evil, social responsibility, and so much more. Of course the adults in this story are evil and rotten, as are some of the boys. Jerry is the hero in more ways than one- sometimes vulnerable but always strong. It is possible that Cormier wanted to blast religion in this novel, but I see him as empowering kids, to not simply lie down and let the world happen to them.

Don't I wish I'd read this book as a teenager? YES I DO!

Robert Cormier has written many books that teach life lessons. One of them is 8 Plus 1. 8 Plus 1 has nine completely different stories, hence the title. One of the best things about it is the plot. The plot really helped me relate to the characters. This is especially true in "The Moustache." I could really relate with the main character, Mike, with how he was feeling. In each of the stories the reader gets to know the characters and feel what they are feeling. I can put myself into Jerry's place in "Bunny Berigan-Wasn't He a Musician or Something?" because I could understand why he was feeling lucky, sad, and pain. I could sympathize with him feeling that his best friend was making a horrible mistake. Another great thing about 8 Plus 1 is how the themes are told. Cormier makes the reader think about what he is trying to say and doesn't just tell you. This is really shown in "Protestants Cry Too" when Jerry says, "You said Protestants have no heart, that they don't laugh or cry. Jessica was crying. I saw her face and she was crying just like you cried the other night at supper." The reader has to think about what this means. I thought that there were only two negative point about Cormier's book. The first is that none of the short stories have very adventerous plots. They teach the theme well but don't have any really exciting and suspensful parts. The other is that the end of the stories leave the reader wondering what is going to happen to the characters. Over all, I think that 8 Plus 1 is an very insightful book.

8 plus 1 is a very well known book by Robert Cormier. This book is intended for young adults. Cormiers draws from his past life experiences to come up with his fictional yet realistic characters and plots. For instance he uses the Depression as a setting for many of his stories. The stories include everyday and sometimes sensitive themes for the growing generation, like stereotyping and prejudice issues. Before each story, Cormier uses an introduction to each story to give a general backround. By reading this book, I have gained a stronger sense of life through his character's problems and solutions. These interesting and ever maturing characters with their suspensueful plots kept me constantly intertwined with the story. The following are less desirable qualities about the book. For the fact that Cormier uses the same characters for some of his stories, it makes it a little confusing. Also some other events that he uses for his plot are offensive or perhaps shocking to a more sensitive viewer. Overall, Robert Cormier uses themes that involve regularly occurring problems that previous authors dared not venture.

Eight Plus One, by Robert Cormier, is a collection of nine short stories. These stories are all about qualities and values that are important in everyday life. Robert keeps most of the characters the same throughout the stories. It gave me a chance to get to know them as I watched them grow through their experiences. The book also appeals to young and old people alike as several stories relate to both. One downside is that the stories may be a little boring as the values seem to become repetitive and that made me lose interest. Also, many of the stories are sad and may not appeal to younger readers who are looking for more adventurous material. All in all, Eight Plus One is a good book for the mature reader who can look a little deeper in the stories for the real reason they were written.

Considering the unusual complexity of I Am the Cheese for a young adult novel, Jennifer Keely has written a surprisingly shallow analysis/history. The book is written at a reading level closer to the younger end of the book's readers, which is fine, but she fails to give much insight into the novel beyond quoting numerous newspaper reviews (some of which are obviously, in hindsight, ridiculous) and she leaves out much of the controversy that The Chocolate War has stirred up over the years (one of the most frequently banned books in schools), although she mentions that book quite a lot. There is also scant mention of the major motion picture adapted from I Am the Cheese, which might be a useful research/teaching tool for young readers. Unless you're writing a paper for an English class, Understanding I Am the Cheese is worth flipping through at your public library, but not worth purchasing.

The book was ok but it was confusing.I liked the book because bikes interest me.After you get into the book it starts to make sense.