Author: Kathie

The life and times of Robert Cormier

Robert Cormier was born on January 17, 1925 in Leominster, Massachusetts. He was the second of eight children in the family. As a child, he attended a Catholic elementary and high school and enjoyed books rather than playing ball in the streets. Cormier never left the Leominster area; he always lived within three miles from the house where he was born, with the exception of his summer house, which was nineteen miles away. Cormier married and raised four children.
Cormier’s talent for writing was discovered by a nun in seventh grade. She read one of his poems and told him that he was a writer. This remark changed the way that he thought about himself. “His first professional publication occurred while he was a freshman at Fitchburg State College. His professor, Florence Conlon, sent his short story, without his knowledge, to The Sign, a national Catholic magazine. The story, titled “The Little Things That Count,” sold for $75.” (http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=5740 )
After college, Cormier wrote commercials for a local radio station for a short time, and then switched to newspapers. He wrote and edited at the Fitchburg Sentinel for 23 years. He also wrote short stories for magazines such as McCall’s and Saturday Evening Post.
Cormier wrote three adult novels which were relatively successful, but it wasn’t until he published The Chocolate War in 1974 that he was launched into the Young Adult reading market and achieved his notorious success.
“The loneliness and sense of being an outsider that Cormier had experienced as a bookish child, who was picked upon in the street, became translated into a series of main characters who were all loners”. (http://books.guardian.
co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,393333,00.html) In an interview with Roger Sutton published in the School Library Journal (June, 1991), Cormier said “I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations.”
Kathy Latrobe and Trisha Hutcherson describe Cormier’s novels this way, “His novels lead young adults to the tough questions that promote hard thinking, lively discussion, and the exploration of their emotional needs in relation to society.” (World Literature Today)
In “A Loving Farewell to Robert Cormier”, longtime friend and author of the study of his work (Presenting Robert Cormier, 1989), Patty Campbell wrote “Young adult literature has lost its grand master”. (Horn Book Magazine).

Robert Cormier
1925—2000

Books by Robert Cormier

Kathryn Kielminski LIS722

Now and at the Hour (1960)
A Little Raw on Monday Mornings (1963)
Take Me Where the Good Times Are (1965)
The Chocolate War (1974)
I am the Cheese (1977)
After the First Death (1979)
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1983)
Beyond the Chocolate War (1985)
Fade (1988)
Other Bells for Us to Ring (1990)
We All Fall Down (1991)
I Have Words to Spend (1991)
Tunes for Bears to Dance To (1992)
In the Middle of the Night (1995)
Tenderness (1997)
Heroes (1998)
Frenchtown Summer (1999)
The Rag and Bone Shop (2001)

Awards:
Notable Book for Young Adults (I am the Cheese—1977)
Assembly on Literature for Adolescents Award (1982) by the National Council of Teachers of English
Margaret A. Edwards Award (1991) for his contributions to young adult literature.

The Chocolate War (1974)
Amazon.com Does Jerry Renault dare to disturb the universe? You wouldn't think that his refusal to sell chocolates during his school's fundraiser would create such a stir, but it does; it's as if the whole school comes apart at the seams. To some, Jerry is a hero, but to others, he becomes a scapegoat--a target for their pent-up hatred. And Jerry? He's just trying to stand up for what he believes, but perhaps there is no way for him to escape becoming a pawn in this game of control; students are pitted against other students, fighting for honor--or are they fighting for their lives?
I am the Cheese (1977)
Amazon.com Imagine discovering that your whole life has been a fiction, your identity altered, and a new family history created. Suddenly nothing is as it once seemed; you can trust no one, maybe not even yourself. It is exactly this revelation that turns 14-year-old Adam Farmer's life upside down. As he tries to ascertain who he really is, Adam encounters a past, present, and future too horrible to contemplate. Suspense builds as the fragments of the story are assembled--a missing father, government corruption, espionage--until the shocking conclusion shatters the fragile mosaic. Young adult readers will easily relate to the shy and confused Adam, whose desperate searching for self resembles a disturbingly exaggerated version of the identity crisis common to the teenage years.
After the First Death (1979)
Avon Books Edition, Jacket Notes
Ben, Miro and Kate. They meet for the first time on a hot summer day on a bridge after a bus is hijacked. Kate, the busdriver, is responsible for bringing sixteen pre-school children to camp; Miro, a terrorist and an assassin, is ready to kill and be killed; and Ben, the son of a general, is forced to play a crucial role in who will live and who will die. Ben, Miro and Kate. Each in his own way innocent — one about love, one about evil, one about bravery. All are unprepared for what will happen next.
The Rag and Bone Shop (2001)
Amazon.com A 7-year-old girl has been battered to death, and there are no suspects, no leads. The police, under political pressure to make an arrest, bring in Trent, a cold, ambitious professional interrogator who prides himself on his ability to extract confessions. His victim is 12-year-old Jason--the last person to see the girl. We know that Jason is innocent, and halfway through the interrogation Trent realizes it, too, in "a blazing moment." But like a medieval torturer, his goal is confession, not truth, and so he stifles his impulses for good and proceeds with the job, with deeply ironic consequences.
Other Bells for Us to Ring (2001)
Amazon.com
Eleven-year-old Darcy hasn't lived in any one place long enough to have a best friend--until her family settles in Frenchtown and she meets Kathleen Mary O'Hara. Darcy is spellbound by Kathleen Mary's vivid tales of Catholicism. She shows Darcy a world beyond Frenchtown: a world of daring games and secrets, of sins and miracles. With Darcy's father off fighting the war somewhere in Europe, Kathleen Mary couldn't have come into her life at a better time. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, Kathleen Mary and her family disappear. While Darcy waits to hear from her, she learns that her father is missing in action. Christmas is coming, and Darcy is unsure about the power of God's love. Will the miracle she hopes for really happen?

Information was obtained from the following sources:
IPL Kidspace:
www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/askauthor/Cormier.html
ML Author Spotlight --
www.classzone.com/novelguides/authors/cormier.cfm
Random House | Authors | Robert —
www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=5740
Kidsreads.com - Robert —
www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-cormier-robert.asp
Robert Cormier —
www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/robert-cormier/
Robert Cormier —
www.achuka.co.uk/special/cormier01.htm
Robert Cormier —
www.webenglishteacher.com/cormier.html
Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Robert Cormier —
books.guardian.co.uk/news/ articles/0,6109,393333,00.html
Educational Paperback Association: Cormier, Robert —
www.edupaperback.org/showauth.cfm?authid=80
Robert Cormier Teacher Resource File —
falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/cormier.htm
Barnes & Noble.com - Robert Cormier - Books: Meet the Writers
www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/ writer.asp?z=y&cid=885746
Robert Cormier —
www.nndb.com/people/173/000065975/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/feature/5191/104-7444629-9675133
Campbell, Patty. “A Loving Farewell to Robert Cormier”, Horn Book Magazine; Mar/Apr 2001, Vol. 77 Issue 2, p. 245.
Latrobe, Kathy & Hutcherson, Trisha. “An introduction to Ten Ourstanding Young-Adult Authors in the United States”, World Literature Today; Summer/Autumn 2002, Vol. 76, Iss 3/4, p. 69.
Sutton, Roger. “Kind of a Funny Dichotomy”, School Library Journal, June 1991, p. 28-33.

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