From: Lyn Jones <ljones>
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 11:45:59 -0500

One of my favorite Robert Cormier books is Tunes for Bears to Dance to. I teach a major literary unit on the Holocaust and Cormeir's book is a favorite of my students for many reasons. One, it's short. (We have to be honest here - I do teach 8th grade.) Second, they like the perspective it offers of what happened after liberation. And, third, they enjoy the debate of the choice Henry has to make. In fact, this book appeals most to my reluctant readers. They understand Henry's desperation more than many. My assistant principal had to cover my class one day for ten minutes. My students were quietly reading. One of my students walked up to him and told him that my rule is: when it's reading time, everyone reads. My student handed him this book. He finished it that night. He said it was the first book he had read in years. All of this not only speaks to the power of the book, but the power of Cormier as well. He makes people think and question and feel. Lyn Jones Fishers Junior High A human mind once stretched to a new idea, never returns to its former dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendall Holmes


                -----Original Message---- From: Megan Schliesman
[mailto:Schliesman at education.wisc.edu]
                Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 9:45 AM
                To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
                Subject: [CCBC-Net] The Work of Robert Cormier

                It's time to begin our August discussion, looking at the books of
                Robert
                Cormier, author of young adult classics such as "The Chocolate War"
                (Knopf, 1974), "I Am the Cheese" (Pantheon, 1977) and "After the First
                Death" (Pantheon, 1979).

                Robert Cormier died on November 2, 2000. In a tribute to Cormier in
                the March/April 2001 issue of The Horn Book Magazine, Patty Campbell
                wrote that Cormier was "the first to show the literary world that YA
                novels could be not only realistic about teen concerns but
                unflinchingly honest about big questions like the abuse of power,
                courage, forgiveness and redemption, and the struggle to stay human in
                a world that is, as C.S. Lewis has called it,
'enemy-occupied
                territory.' "

                From the publication of his very first novel, The Chocolate War,
                Cormier created a stir with that willingness to tell such honest
                tales. And those tales have caused ripples--and sometimes
                storms--throughout the literary, library and educational communities.
                Most important, however, they have touched the lives of the young
                adults who were read them and found comfort, validation and relief,
                not to mention fine, compelling, emotionally gripping storytelling.
                And one can argue there is hope, too, to be found in truth-telling, no
                matter how dark the story.

                Today and in the coming days, we invite you to share your thoughts
                about Cormier's work. What book or books that he wrote had the
                greatest impact on you as a reader? How have you seen young adults
                who read Cormier affected by his novels?

                Megan



                Megan Schliesman, Librarian
                Cooperative Children's Book Center
                School of Education
                UW-Madison
                608&2?03
                schliesman at education.wisc.edu

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Received on Fri 03 Aug 2001 11:45:59 AM CDT