Customer Reviews

The Wave (Laurel-Leaf contemporary fiction)

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I just finished reading The Wave for my eighth grade english class and I thought it was great. I was only supposed to read up to chapter six for Monday, but I got so into the book that I finished it. I only wish that it was a little longer and that they had spent more time on the ending. It was really good to completely get a grasp on how much American youth will rely on one leader to think for them. Even though the book takes place in 1969, I think the incident could still take place today, because so many kids are still willing to follow a leader and do what the majority is doing. Deep down, The Wave really is a classic story about the effects of extreme peer pressure.

The Wave by Morton Rhue

"Morton Rhue" is a pseudonym and his real name is Todd Strasser . He was born in New York City in 1950 and he grew up on Long Island (N.Y.). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary School. The he went to the Wheatly School for junior high an high school. He had trouble with spelling and grammar. Later he graduated from Beloit College. He was a reporter on the Middletown (N.Y.) Times-Herald Record and an adverting copywriter before his first novel for young people, Angel Dust Blues, was published 1979. For some years he supplemented his income as the owner of Toggle Inc., a small fortune-cookie company. He and his wife, Pamela, live not far from New York City with their daughter, son, and yellow Labrador retriever. "The Wave" was the first book he had published under his pseudonym "Morton Rhue". As Todd Strasser he published more than 100 books. He wrote movie novelizations, too, for example "Free Willy", "Jumanji" or "Home alone". He got many awards for some of his books.

The book is called `The Wave', because the experiment, the teacher started is named like that. His intention is to create something, which symbolises movement, direction and impact. Then he gets the idea of calling it `The Wave' , because a wave has these characteristics. In order to give the `Wave members', his pupils, a feeling of community, he also introduces a special symbol and a special salute. The symbol is a circle with the outline of a wave inside it. The salute is to cup the right hand in the shape of a wave, then to tap it against the left shoulder and hold it upright.

Ben Ross a history teacher at an American high school is discussing the horrors of the holocaust. The students ask how all this could happen. They ask if all the Germans were not Nazis, why they just stood by and watched. Mr. Ross can not answer their questions properly. He wants to start an experiment. He wants to recreate the situation of life in Nazi Germany. This experiment is called The Wave. The Wave is completely different to their normal lessons. There is a membership card and a special salute. The new Wave community is a kind of secret family, something special. Other students want to be involved and members recruit new members. So the Wave moves beyond the classroom. Later the Wave gets out of control. Anyone who says something against the Wave is an enemy, these people are threatened. After a while Mr. Ross realizes that the Wave gets out of control. He decides to end his experiment abruptly. He organizes a Wave rally. When the lights in the hall get out a film of Hitler and the holocaust appear on the TV-screens. The film stops with a picture of Hitler surrounded by soldiers. Finally Mr. Ross says: "Yes you all would have made good Nazis... Fascism isn't something those other people did, it's right here in all of us".

The author of the book ‚The Wave' uses a limited omniscient narrator for the story. That means that it is told from the point of view of the most important characters (especially Laurie and Mr. Ross) He always uses the third person form. The relationship between descriptions and dialogues is balanced out.

In my opinion it is a must to read "The Wave" if someone is interested in the historical and political facts of the Third Reich. The Wave is a modern novel, that tells you how Hitler was able to have such a great success and how he won the masses. In "The Wave" the classroom- experiment is compared to Hitler's raise to power. Ben Ross plays the role of a leader and finally this thing called "The Wave" gets out of control. The book makes clear, that something like the Third Reich is not past, it tells us that it can happen even in the present. It is interesting to read and also easy to understand. Because of these reasons the reader may be caught up while reading it.

Sum: A book for young adults, told in a modern way. Everybody should read it and you will not regret it!

I'll start out by saying to adults out there that this is a book I would highly recommend...for your youngsters. First, it has characters that young adults like to read about--high schoolers, cheerleaders, football players, etc. Strasser also includes minor characters for break away from the action or for comic relief. I know my students enjoyed the characters, especially the girls who enjoyed the interaction between them and the fact that the progagonist is a female. Second, it deals with things that many young adults should know more about and/or have strong feelings about: the Holocaust and peer pressure. Discussing Nazi-ism with my class prior to reading the book caused them to ask many of the questions that the characters asked. The book helped them to understand the Holocaust better and lead to a discussion about peer pressure and the importance of setting your limits clearly before someone in high school pressures you into something (drugs, drinking, sex, stereotyping). Finally, it's a well written book. It has short chapters (everyone likes those), it's fast paced (because the book takes place over a week or so) and the main points are easilly understandable because the author has the characters repeat important information in different ways several times to make sure the young adult reader is not getting lost in sub-plots. In all, an excellent work that more parents or other adults should read with their children.

After having read the first couple of pages, I was absolutely unable to put the book down. The idea of the story, that fascism is still present everywhere, even in America, which resents it the most is quite interesting. It is true that the characters are not exactly the most complex ones I was ever confronted with in a novel, and also the idea that a high school class of such a rowdy nature is transformed into such a obedient and disciplined "machine" is quite ridiculous, but I believe that had the characters had more depth, or had the author spent more time on the transformation, it would have interfered with the story's flow.

Now, the main reason why I enjoyed this book so much is that it confronts a theme that too many people are trying to forget, to ignore: the susceptibility of every single person on this planet to fascism. To prove this, a teacher at an American high school starts a very dubious experiment. He founds a "club", the Wave. They have their own greeting, and an own belief (power by discipline, power by community, power by action). But soon nobody sees the Wave as a school project anymore, but as real life. Students that refuse to join the Wave are threatened. The student newspaper releases an article which criticizes the Wave very strongly, and somebody sprays the word "ENEMY" on the author's locker. Things escalate when a Jewish boy is beaten up. Even the teacher who founded the Wave cannot control it any longer. But then he shows the members of the Wave a picture of Adolf Hitler, and says that he is their leader. He shows how wrong the way that they were behaving was, and suddenly, everything goes back to normal.

The ending of this book is truly somewhat idiotic, and is obviously a result of lack of ideas. It seems as if the author was trying very hard to find a "happy end" to his story. As if Mr. Strasser had run out of time and had to finish his book quickly. This caused an extreme loss of quality. Another factor that demonstrates this idea is that the story was written in such simple a language that any four year old child could have read the story without difficulties. Overall, I must say that the book seemed to be more like a first draft than anything else. The idea for the story was very fascinating, but its execution more than questionable.

When Ben Ross decides to illustrate how Naziism came into being, he conducts a very dangerous experiment. He insists that the students in the high school history class he teaches stand and salute when responding; he teaches them the credo "Strength through discipline!" "Action through Discipline!" The students quickly respond and one boy who had previously neglected his stuides and personal grooming transformed into a serious diligent student under this new approach.

In time, the students are so pulled under the Wave, as the movement is called. They insist that other students salute them; they conduct Wave rallies and even attack a boy because he is Jewish. Parents pressure the principal to take some action and it is only the teacher's clever way of bringing the experiment to an end with the help of two students who had their own brushes with danger involving the Wave to show just how fascism can be encouraged and developed.

This was based on an actual case in California in 1969 and it illustrates the power of group mentality. An excellent, tautly written work!

Kenneth G. 1A
The story behind this book is a great life lesson on how power can be addictive and painful. I liked the fact that the story was based on kids my age. I sometimes feel pressured by something like that of the wave every day. I really could relate to the story.

Can you imagine recreating a leader like Hitler and a group that followed him like the Nazis? Well, this book does. The Wave is based on a true occurance in Palo Alto, California in a High School History Class. This book is about a classroom experiment that goes too far. Mr. Ross is a High School teacher that teaches a group of students that form "The Wave". When most of the school gets caught up in "The Wave", two students realize it has gone too far. But can they stop it before it's too late? I thought The Wave was a very good book and really made you think if something like this would ever really happen again. I give The Wave 5 stars.

I liked this book very much. I especially liked the mottos: Strength through Community! Strength Through Discipline! Strength through Action! My class read it and I liked it very much. I felt sorry for Robert Billings in the end. I wondered how Mr. Ross felt when he had to stop the wave. I mean, like, how would you feel like if you started something very sucessful and suddenly YOU HAD to stop it? I also felt sorry for the members of The Wave because Mr. Ross controlled them for such a long time, then saying "This is your leader. See what you've becoming?" It was very exciting, but it also teaches us a valuable lesson: Don't trust someone just because they are in a position of trust or authority. I guess I have learned that too after reading this book. This was a great book, and I'd wish to research more about WWII. Wouldn't you?

A swift and engaging read aimed at young teens. It involves a teacher's lesson getting completely out of control.

The whole thing turns into quite the page-turner when you learn that it is more or less based on a true story!

Incidentally, if you'd like to investigate further, the actual classroom experiment was called "The Third Wave." It was thought up by a history teacher named Ron Jones at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto, California in 1969.

The teacher reportedly thought up his "program" as a way of responding to his students' professed bafflement and disbelief that a civilized nation like Germany would have so obediently followed its mustachioed leader into war and barbarity.

This book, incidentally, is merely a novelization of a ABC after-school special that aired in 1981 (it says it was "based on the teleplay"). The story was recently (2008) adapted into a full-length but much more fictionalized movie released in theaters. But that was a German movie (Die Welle). The director was Dennis Gansel. If you search for "Die Welle DVD," you can find an English version on Amazon's UK site, but it is only available as a costly import on the American site.

This is a review of the book The Wave by Todd Strasser. "Strength through Discipline; Strength through Community, Strength through Action". I am sure that Hitler had a similar motto for the Nazi Party. Even though it was initially a good idea for Mr. Ross's class to experience what Nazi life was like, it soon got out of hand. However, for some students it was something to look forward to because they had nothing else going on in their life.
I liked this book very much. It helped me see how it is possible that people are very sure that they are doing the right things but it turns out that what they are doing is totally wrong. I still can't believe that this really happened at a high school in 1969. It is unreal that something so horrible could happen only 30 years after WWII.
It seems that Mr. Ross was trying to do good for his history class, but he should have ended it as soon as they had just a little taste of Nazi life. It surprised me very much on page 95 that Brad would not let Laurie up the bleachers without doing the salute. I thought that was the first big sign that The Wave was getting out of hand. "Just do the stupid salute" Brad said. My understanding here was that he didn't want to do it either.
The moral of this story is to not always follow the crowd, but to keep your own identity. The letter Laurie received from the anonymous junior read: "Aren't you going to stick with your friends"? This was what the Wave member had said to the junior in trying to convince him to join The Wave. That just shows how people can be mind-controlled by a person in power. I can identify with the feelings, because it is not always easy to not give in to peer pressure
I would definitely recommend this book. It was an interesting read and left me wanting more.