The chocolate war

The chocolate war [sound recording] / Robert Cormier; Read by Frank Muller.— New York : Listening Library/Random House, [2007], p1988.

5 sound discs (ca. 5 hr., 38 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

ISBN: 9780739350157

Read by Frank Muller, with an introduction read by the author.

1. High schools – Fiction. 2. Educational fund raising – Fiction. 3. Bullying – Fiction.

Consider this the worst-case scenario of a school fundraiser. Combine a villainous frightened acting head of school who’s gambled school funds in a desperate scheme to sell twice the usual quota of chocolates, a shadowy underground gang led by a sadistic prankster, a stubborn, isolated, grief-stricken new student who refuses to participate, several other cruelly dishonest students, put them all in a cash-strapped boy’s private high school and you have a setting on the extreme end of the bell-curve of social pathology. There’s also lots of blood, sweat, tears, and vomit in this most macho setting. It climaxes in a boxing match staged before the whole student body. With all these extremes, it’s no wonder that teens, fighting desperate, if developmentally appropriate, psychological battles between the extremes of childhood and the unknown territory of their approaching adulthood, love this book. It’s kept this title on school assignment lists, in school and public libraries, and on most challenged lists by parents for decades, long after its 1974 debut, when “doing your own thing” vs. conforming to the system was uppermost in teen minds. Cormier’s sometimes overwritten and somewhat overwrought narrative of high school bullying is read with appropriate Sturm und Drang by Frank Muller

Teacher man

Teacher man : a memoir/ by Frank McCourt.— Unabridged ed.— Prince Frederick: Recorded Books, 2005.

8 sound discs (9 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

ISBN: 9781419362705

Subtitle from container insert.

Performed by the author.

1. McCourt, Frank. 2. High school teachers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography. 3. Irish Americans -- Biography.

371.10092

Three things make McCourt's reminisces a delight: his natural gift for storytelling and his honesty and wit when relating his own self-doubts, failures as well as his successes. This third volume covers his decades of teaching high school English, most of it in public vocational-technical high schools, and then, at the end of his career, in an academic magnet. It is all the more interesting, because he is not teacher of the year or educational academic arguing for the latest or his favorite teaching method or educational theory. Although now a best-selling author, as he puts, it:

When I taught in New York City high schools for thirty years no one but my students paid me a scrap of attention. In the world outside the school I was invisible. Then I wrote a book about my childhood and became mick of the moment. I hoped the book would explain family history to McCourt children and grandchildren. I hoped it might sell a few hundred copies and I might be invited to have discussions with book clubs. Instead it jumped onto the best-seller list and was translated into thirty languages and I was dazzled.

If at all possible, listen to this book, or Angela’s Ashes or ‘Tis. Not all authors are the best readers of their own works, but McCourt’s voice is a marvelous instrument. Although born in America of immigrant parents, he returned to Limerick, Ireland as a four-year-old, where he grew up before returning to the United States. In the subsequent decades he has not lost the brogue and cadence of his ancestral land. Then, when you pick up the print version, it will continue to speak to you in the author’s voice.

Inventing Japan

Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 / by Ian Buruma; Performed by Nelson Runger.— Prince Frederick : Recorded Books, p2003.

6 sound discs (7 hrs.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

ISBN: 140254202X

(Modern Library chronicles (Recorded Books, Inc.))

Edition: Unabridged.

Subtitle from container.

1. Japan – History – 1868- . 2. Japan – History – Restoration, 1853-1870

952.03

A clear concise history of modern Japan from the opening forced by Commodore Perry to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics written by a Dutch resident of the county. As a bonus Buruma reflects on events through the end of the twentieth century.

Make no law : the Sullivan case and the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis

Make no law : the Sullivan case and the First Amendment / Anthony Lewis.— 1st Vintage Books ed. – New York : Vintage Books, 1992.
368 p. in various pagings ; 21 cm
ISBN: 0679739394 (pbk.)
Originally published: New York : Random House, c1991.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Sullivan, L. B.--Trials, litigation, etc. 2. New York Times Company--Trials, litigation, etc. 3. Libel and slander--United States. 4. Freedom of the press--United States. 5. Press law--United States. 6. United States. Constitution. 1st Amendment. -- Cases.

345.730256

Unhappy with an editorial advertisement published in the New York Times by the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South, L. B. Sullivan, a City Commissioner in Montgomery, Alabama sued the Times for libel in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County for half a million dollars. An all white jury granted the full amount. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld their judgment. The Times appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 1962. It might have argued that Mr. Sullivan, who was never named in the advertisement critical of “Southern violators of the Constitution.” Instead it argued that the first amendment to the federal constitution gave the press the right to criticize the conduct of a public official. In 1963 the Court decided to hear the case.

Traditionally, following English common law, American legislatures and court considered libel and slander as exception to the freedom of speech and press granted by the first amendment, in the same way that blackmail or perjury were beyond its protection. Also libel was generally a matter of state rather than federal law. It was also unusual for the federal court to hear an appeal on a case that had, up until this point, been heard entirely in state courts. It was even more unusual when the federal Supreme Court published its unanimous decision in 1964 to reverse the Alabama ruling.

Lewis gives an excellent presentation of the historical background of the case and the legal issues involved in the decision. He traces the history of the First Amendment back to its origins in the first Congress and before, and looks at the legal tensions between American government and press beginning with the Sedition Act of 1798 and going forward through the Sullivan decision and on though 1991 when this book was written. There are stops along the way to discuss other cases that had a significant impact on press law, and a chapter on the opinions of Justices Oliver Wendell Homes and Louis Brandeis. Appended are reproductions of a first draft of the decision by Justice William Brennan followed by the final Opinion of the Court and Concurring Opinions by Hugo Black and Arthur Goldberg. A reproduction of the original editorial advertisement is also included.

Mail Order Ninja

Mail order ninja : Vol. 1 / written by Joshua Elder; illustrated by Erich Owen.— Los Angeles : TOKYOPOP, 2006.

[96] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.

ISBN : 1598167286

1. Ninja – Comic books, strips, etc. 2. Ninja – Humor. 3. School – Comic books, strips, etc.

Mail order ninja : Vol. 2 / written by Joshua Elder; illustrated by Erich Owen.— Los Angeles : TOKYOPOP, 2006.

[112] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.

ISBN: 1598167294

1. Ninja – Comic books, strips, etc. 2. Ninja – Humor. 3. School – Comic books, strips, etc.

741.5973

Fifth grader Timothy James McAllister has a problem with bullies at his school. He wishes he could deal with them the way the ninja in his favorite manga deals with his adversaries. So when he wins the services of his own feudal Japanese warrior for a year, the bullies fall into line. So what’s next? How about the most obnoxiously snobby rich kid in the school?

What do you do when your very own ninja warrior is threatened by a rival ninja army hired by the most obnoxiously snobby rich kid in your elementary school? Even worse, what do you do, when she starts to channel powers of darkness, and first the school and then the whole town is plastered with posters saying, “Big Sister is Watching You!” Do you really have to ask?

These laugh-out-loud funnies are chock full of verbal and visual humor that will appeal to the fans of Captain Underpants. There’s ninja fighting, a scheming little sister, mind control cereal, silly songs, and even – are you ready for this – disco ninja dancing!