Customer Reviews

The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A classroom is a community, and everyone in it views and interacts within it differently. This story takes multiple viewpoints, weaving together the strands creating the seemingly-impossible scenario of a classroom held hostage by a gun-toting teacher. While mystifying at first, as the poetic narratives resonate, the world of Room 114, evolved over 4 years of high school, becomes a clear window on the individuals involved, and a mirror of vital issues in youthful society. This book creates images in your mind that resonate long after the last page is turned.

The subtle understory of the teacher holding students hostage was the perfect blending element in this tapestry of high school life. If you're looking for TV fireworks=type action in a rescue scene, then this is not the book for you. The slam-bang comes as each student's life moves from freshman to senior, their thoughts and actions a drama that unfolds into their final class with their senior history teacher. You know these people. You went to school with them

It is the end of the school year, and the seniors just want to get their yearbooks and stop thinking about school. They have plans to start work or to go to college, and no one can really be bothered with classes. But then Mr. Wiedermeyer, a senior history teacher, locks the door of his classroom behind his students. He has a gun, although he doesn't seem sure of how he is going to use it, and he won't let his students leave.

Soon the media is involved, reporting on the story as administrators and police try to puzzle through the notes Mr. Wiedermeyer slips under the door. They aren't sure what to make of the things he is saying, and they are terribly afraid of making a bad situation worse.

This story is told in a series of free-verse poems from the minds of the students in the classroom that day and of the others who are involved in the situation.

I really liked that there were five poems about each student, one related to each of his or her four years at the high school and then one related to the day of the hostage situation. Mr. Wiedermeyer's notes and his tone of absolute discouragement made me sad and made him seem less like a villain to me. However, I would have liked to have had more background on some of the characters in this story. Sometimes five poems wasn't enough to figure out what was going on in an individual's life.

This is a nice quick read, that I'd recommend to reluctant teen readers as an example of poetry as a story telling device. A history teacher takes his class hostage with a gun, and Glenn gives us multiple perspectives of the incident. The verse format allows us to hear distinct voices as we briefly see each student grow up in high school, and see the state of mind they find themselves in that day. We see the reactions of the police, parents, and the media. He also makes some fun use of concrete poems.

Glenn manages to build a decent amount of tension before wrapping his story to a close, though I have to say at the end I didn't feel like I'd read anything particularly great.

Read this book. You will probably want to buy it so you can go back and read it more times and it may not be available in every library, but I recommend reading it before you buy it. Once you do, you'll want it. If you can't check it out, it's worth buying sight unseen. I absolutely love this book, so much so that I wrote spontaneously thought to write a review.

Mel Glenn is a great figure in poetry. His storytelling through disconnected short poems is not unheard of but still very unique. I performed several poems from this book for competitive Speech in high school. They were a bit of a hit. Like the book, I ended a bit obtusely, and many judges disliked me for that because an important part of speaking is revealing your meaning clearly enough for everyone. The ending in the book is not presented chronologically or summarily, but it is also very simple and astounding.

This book is touching. It is psychologically brilliant. Each character in a very short series of poems, some of them like parents only allotted one beacuse of their small relevance, are fully rounded! Many sides of the issue are presented. Many lives are expressed. Some would complain that too many characters are introduced and then abandoned, but all these characters were involved in the hostage situation. Some of the poems are news stories, and the whole thing is looked at much like Columbine was looked at: we HAVE to interview every single student, even if they weren't involved because they were all so deeply affected. These characters are not irrelevant. They were part of a school hostage situation. The personalization of the main students, those in the classroom, is to inspire sympathy for them. If they were a faceless group of kids, then the book would have no point. In a way, it is a bit too realistic, particularly for what most people expect out of poetry.

Who would like to be hostage? At school even? A teacher named Mr. Wiedermeyer in 1996 held these kids hostage at Tower High School. Everyone was scared. Especally all the parents who had kids locked up in that room. Everyone has there own opinion on this teacher. Some say he is brilliant and others say he is the meanest teacher. Students think he may or may have not done it. Teachers and students say this about him.All the students hopes he passed everybody. The students tell everybody what their plan is after they graduate.

I absoultly loved this book.This mystery,daredevil book really can grab your attention. Even by looking at the end of the book you will be suprised and want to read the whole thing. I felt sad at the begining and reliefed at the end!!!!!!!

The Taking of Room 114
Every poem holds a dream. Every poem tells a secret. Something every human holds. Something every human lives. Something you live in this story. Hear, live, and feel what each individual is going through, their personal problems, their dreams, and their secrets. Feel the love and scars each teenager receives. Live the anxiety every adolescent undergoes and which Mel Glen steers you through as you read on and on and can't stop. Live the shock you would feel if you walked into your last history class with someone you thought was a nice teacher, but found yourself face to face with a crazy Mr. Wiedmeyer and a gun. Perceive desperate moments each troubled teenager, parent and policeman lives through as you read this story. Get driven through the suspense and mystery of this hostage story.
Opinion of the reader: I really liked this story, it made me see the different types of people there are and how they think.

i had to read this for my Fresham n honors english class, it was okay, i had to read it slowly to pick everything up, it is in poems, so it takes some analasis, and you have to understand everything about every character, the ending really dsent have much to do with the characters, well it does have to do with one of the main players but not the rest of them. Okay now that i totally threw you off, i sugjest reading this, if you can find it.

This book wasn't the best book i have ever read, actually, it 'stank on ice' (lol, i had to say that)
This book was really boring, and dont waste your time reading it,all it is is blah blah blah.
in short.. Dont read this book.