Customer Reviews

The War Between the Classes

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was made to read this book as a senior in high school, for all high school teachers reading this, please do not make 17 and 18 year olds read this. It is written for 10-13 year olds, and at our level this kind of book makes me cringe with irritation because of the level of writing. I and my peers just finished Hamlet for god's sakes and then we are made to read this. It is a good book for pre-teens, but for all you teachers, please teach this book to the age group it was meant for. I just wanted all teachers to know this. It is good for pre-teens but utterly annoying for higher level readers who read Ayn Rand for fun.

I read this book years ago and still remember the plot clearly. It made quite an impression on me, and the social experiment part of the book was fascinating. The love story is a little overworked and cliched, but on the whole I enjoyed the book when I was a preteen and early teen. I'd like to see this rewritten to a college student level, that would be great.

Anyone who reads The War BEtween the Classes will never look at the world the same way again. Even though this book is only at the reading level of 5.4, it has many hidden messages and symbolism. The War BEtween the Classes really shows how racist many people are with or without knowing it.

Amy is a Japanese teenager living in the U.S. who dates a popular rich kid from school, Adam. Her parents dislike the fact that niether their son or daughter have a Japanese couple. In school, Amy and Adam take a class together that wqas known for a great game: The Color Game. Each person in the class would pick a color out of a bag that would indicate their social level in society. Amy and Adam were separated when Amy got to high class woman and Adam a low class man. The women (Teks) had more power than the men (No-Teks). It would be hard breaking the rules, even out of school because of the G4 officers. No one from a lower class could speak to a higher class unless spoken to, and everyone lower had to bow to everyone higher. This game obviouslly becomes a problem in the relationship between Amy and Adam. This was her chance to see how is to be rich, to be treated with respect. Adam, of course, did not like being lower class, especially having to bow to everyone. The game would change the lives of Amy and Adam as well as all the other players. In every country there are money, racial, and sexist issues that should be solved. The author showed many important view points of discrimination between high class and low class people through a simple game that I think would teach many people a lot about our society in general.

The novel "The War Between the Classes" written 1985 by Gloria D. Miklowitz deals with class differences in American society. It is about a Japanese girl, Amy Sumoto, and her relationship to Adam, a member of the upper class. Moreover the "color game" is introduced at school by the teacher Ray Otero reflecting the American class system. The message of the novel is to reconsider your behaviour towards the other social classes and to overcome prejudices towards them.
The novel has about 118 pages and consists of 14 chapters, so it can be read within a few hours. The language is easy and can be understood by non-native speakers though the author uses some slang. The target group are mainly young people between the age of 14 and 16.
My personal opinion about the book is rather negative. Though the idea to write a book about the "color game" is very interesting, the love story between Amy and Adam is not. It is entirely predictable by the reader and full of clichés. But regarding the target group this is perhaps what appeals most to the reader. Maybe Piri Thomas or John Howard Griffin would have given a better insight into American society and racism, but if you want a love story, read "The War Between the Classes".

this book was nothing more than a good idea warped into a boring love story and a preachy message. The whole idea of the color game was a very original idea, but the overemphasized love plot made the book seem almost trashy. The japenese parents were displayed very well, but the rest of the characters were predictible and one-sided. The end was predictable as well, and many of the good non-prejudice ideas the author was trying to write were buried underneath a phony plot and were exagerated. The book could have been good, but in the end, i was dying for it to be done. Sorry, just wasn't good enough.

I think this book should be required reading for all middle school children. In fact here in Texas we have the Lone Star Reading list. I think this book needs to be added apart of the curriculum. If we are to ever dimish the finally seeds of discrimination and all type of classification, we really are to teach our children and one start would be to have them read this book, n addition to all the other books that introduce the struggle that every major racial group have encounter in this country. I found the experiment enlighten yet a struggle for all those who were participants in it. I think this by far is the best book written for Young Adults. Because they really are the future of the world and in essence we really all do need each other in order to survive. The War Between the Classes (Laurel-Leaf Contemporary Fiction)

I used this book in a high school English course. It was recommended to me by the media specialist. Students loved it. I read it with them and I felt it was an easy, enjoyable read. The plot is somewhat predictable. As a teacher, I knew what the teacher was setting the student up to do. What was interesting to me was the way in which the characters in the book treated eachother. It was great to teach stereotypes in class. Also, this book made teaching cultural archetypes and universal themes easy. Students also really wanted to do their own color game. I would say this is a great read for young adults and that it helps students learn acceptance.

This book changed my veiw of the world. It showed me how, even somewhere as small as a classroom, their is discrimination. This book is amazing.

My son read it in a few hours and said I had to read it. I did and found that I not only enjoyed it, but learned a great deal. I just read another person's review here on Amazon.com and she stated that it was a predictable junior romance. She missed the whole point of the book! This book has a very loose premise of a romantic story (perfectly okay for kids), but is really about a game teaching them about the different classes in society. I highly recommend the book, as does my son. He intends to recommend it to his English teacher this fall for a possible class assignment. Read it! You will definitely enjoy it and it'll make you think twice.