Title: Killing Mr. Griffin
Author:
Lois Duncan
Published:
New York: Dell Laurel-leaf, 1981
Pages: Paperback, 272p.
ISBN-10: 01609900
ISBN-13:98-016099004
Summary/Review:
The story is about five high school students who plot to
scare their English Teacher for being very strict in giving them grades. Brian
Griffin is their high school great literature teacher, He is tough on students
who fails to turn in their papers on time.
The group of students thinks it would be funny if they played
a prank on Mr. Griffin and decide to get revenge by kidnapping him. They never
wanted to kill him. But It all goes wrong when the teacher dies of heart attack while being tied.
The book is about teenagers planning a prank, a smaller crime
that spirals out of their control. The central characters are both male and
females. The teenagers are: Mark Kinney, David Ruggles, a handsome senior and
president of the high school’s senior class; Jeff, a basketball player and
Betsy, the head cheerleader.
In the story, they all
succumb to one character that is portrayed as a leader, and now they must take
the consequences of their actions. The characters are realistic and
interesting, and the difficult portrayal of Mr. Griffin is handled perfectly.
The reader could easily believe he is a good man, undeserving of his fate.
Two of the major themes about this novel re peer pressure and
the reactions of choice and equal consequence. Teenagers need to learn at an
early age that they do have a choice. Everyone has choices in everything they
do, and there are positive choices that yield positive consequences, and there
are negative choices that yield negative
consequences.
Killing Mr. Griffin was awarded the ALA Notable children’s Books.
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