The Wave by Todd Strasser

From Goodreads,

"The Wave is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969.

The powerful forces of group pressure that pervaded many historic movements such as Nazism are recreated in the classroom when history teacher Burt Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long The Wave, with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and action", The Wave sweeps from the classroom through the entire school. And as most of the students join the movement, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize the frightening momentum of The Waveand realize they must stop it before it's too late."

Goodreads - The Wave

Awards:

• Preis der Leseratten des ZDF (1984)

When I first saw this book I saw the sticker that said "The classroom experiment that went too far" on the cover.  It caught my eye because I'm a teacher and I'm always intrigued by things related to my profession.  I read the back cover and was like "Wow!  This is based on real events and this teacher was able to fully engage his students in his lessons."  I was sold on the book and knew I had to read it and find out what the experiment was and how it went too far.  

This book starts with a foreword that states that this book is based on true events that happened in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California in 1969.  The book then begins following a couple students and getting a brief glimpse of what is happening before they enter their history class.  The teacher is trying to teach about World War II and Adolf Hitler.  Of course students ask questions pertaining to how something could go so far and how people could just give up their rights.  The teacher sees an opportunity to show the kids how they could just fall in with what the dictator said.  From there, the entire experiment spiraled out of control and took over the school until the teacher had to put an end to it. 

This book gave me lots of mixed feelings.  The experiment was completely out of line and should have never happened.  But at the same time he saw a teachable moment and he capitalized on it.  I've been known to take a moment like this and make it something where the students can learn something new.  But this went absolutely way too far.  I know I have personally asked myself how someone like Hitler could make so many people follow them and do what they say.  But after reading this I realized they were scared to leave because they were afraid that they would end up in a worse situation than if they just followed the leader.  This book is a super effective way to realize how easily and quickly someone can fall into a cult or powerful group.  

One thing that I don't like about this book is that Strasser wrote it based off of the movie that was created back in 1981.  After I realized this was based on the movie I was irritated because I felt like I should have just watched the movie and saved myself some time.  I would have enjoyed it more if Strasser had researched and wrote his own book.  I do understand that this is based on real events, and that makes writing a book much more difficult.  I think I would have really enjoyed it if this had been a complete work of nonfiction instead of just loosely based on events.

Overall, this book was somewhat boring and I was so excited when I finally finished it.  If you like books based on true stories then there's a slight chance you will enjoy this.  I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Fallout by Todd Strasser

From Goodreads,

"What if the bomb had actually been dropped? What if your family was the only one with a shelter?

In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott’s dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott’s dad can shut the door. With not enough room, not enough food, and not enough air, life inside the shelter is filthy, physically draining, and emotionally fraught. But even worse is the question of what will -- and won’t -- remain when the door is opened again. Internationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring the terrifying what-ifs of one of the most explosive moments in human history."

Goodreads - Fallout

This book is told by Scott whose father decides to build a bomb shelter just in case something happens.  The neighbors all think he is crazy and overreacting.  They all think this until the sirens go off and they too are in need of a shelter.  As Scott and his family try to get in the shelter and seal the door, people start forcing their way in.  By the time the door is sealed someone is seriously injured, parts of families are left outside the shelter, and too many people are locked inside the shelter.

This book was both phenomenal and horrible at the same time.  Starting with the great things in this book is an easy task.  There are a lot of historical references in this book, which I enjoyed from a teacher's perspective, especially since I've never been a history buff.  I loved the whole suspense of a fictional bomb being dropped in the United States and families having to seek shelter.  This was something that was a real fear back in the early 60s, and I think it is great that Strasser took his childhood fears and twisted them into a book.  I think even today, this is becoming more of a fear that someone will get angry at the United States and will bomb us.  That made it a more plausible and realistic book.

The entire time I was reading this, (which I read in just a few short hours), I was hanging on the edge waiting to see what would happen with everyone locked in the shelter.  I was secretly hoping that everyone had just been overacting and that a bomb hadn't been dropped at all, but indeed I was wrong.  I'm a big over thinker and a huge fan of "what ifs" and this book kept me saying, "Well, what if this happened now?" and "What if this happened back in the 60s, how would life be different now?"  I love to play out the possibilities of what could have been and what could still be, and this book definitely allowed me to do that.

On the flip side of this book being great in the historical fiction sense, it had some content that I was very unhappy with.  When I purchase books from Scholastic I always hope that I'll be able to put them into my classroom library so that students can read it and we can discuss it.  Unfortunately, this book had some VERY inappropriate content.  The children in this book are just 11 or 12 years old, but they were very aware of adult content and happenings.  For example, one of the father's allowed Scott to have some wine (more than once) at their house, where on one occasion he got drunk.  Scott and his friend also talked about Playboys and looking at women, both of which I do NOT condone.  I was so disappointed in this content, because I know that some of my students would have absolutely loved this book.

Also, I felt like all the characters were poorly developed in this book.  I didn't feel like I really learned anything about any of the characters on a deep, emotional level.  They were all trapped in the shelter and I feel that in that situation they would have had a deeper connection and emotional state than what they all did.  Nobody really spoke to each other, unless they were yelling about what they should do.  I honestly feel that people would have talked to each other just to have something to do.  Just like the characters, the ending was poorly written.  The book ended quickly and didn't give any comment as to what happened months or years after the incident.  I would have liked some kind of closure to conclude the book and let me know that everyone was okay who was in the shelter.

This would be a good book for high school kids or anyone looking for a historical fiction novel.  I would have given this book 5 stars if it hadn't had the adult content, but because of that I'm dropping my rating to a 3.5.