[The Chocolate War] will surely be one of those books that sweep through teenage readers with the fervent interest that Catcher in the Rye roused in its day….

I've … spoken to adult readers whom it worries…. Their charge against it has nothing to do with the book's compulsion. On the contrary. They say it is too attractive, too compelling, too persuasive. They say that such a hopeless ending—hopeless, not (colloquially) unsuccessful—should not be presented to young people.

But to say that is to argue that books form ideas and behaviour according to the conclusions of their stories. In other words a novel's happy ending helps towards happy endings for people. Christian novelists make Christian readers. And I doubt that anyone actually holds such a literary philosophy to be true.

Robert Cormier obviously doesn't believe it. He dedicates the book to his son: which indicates that he's...