Chocolate Fever

I found this book in my attic and decided to incorporate it into my 50 Banned Books Challenge. (I'm hoping to read 50 banned or challenged books by the end of the year.) I noticed the book on several banned-books-lists, but still have no idea why it was challenged!At 93 pages, I was able to read through the book in about five minutes.The moral of this story appears to be that you CAN have too much of a good thing. Or that all actions have consequences that should be considered prior to undertaking them. (I'm personally more fond of the latter.)The writing style contained in this book pleases me in that it's not the typical dumbed-down drivel I've encountered in more than a few present-day children's books. The ideas are fun, fully-developed, and at a level which children can relate to and understand. While not my favorite children's book, I respect this enough to boost my rating for it a bit.All-in-all, it was a quick and entertaining read as well as a trip down Memory Lane. I'll be releasing my copy through bookcrossing.com to see what others think of it.

I really enjoyed reading this book for multiple reasons. I liked how engaging the plot was to the reader. The plot created suspense during multiple situations in the book. In chapter 6 when Henry is being chased by all the different people and finally finds a place to rest, the author ends the chapter saying, "Henry lay down to rest for a while before setting off on his journey". This creates suspense for the reader and pushes them to keep reading to find out what Henry's journey may be. I liked how the author created multiple opportunities for the reader to question the book. In chapter 6 when Dr. Fargo comes to the conclusion that Henry has chocolate fever, the reader starts creating questions while reading. Some questions may be, is this fever treatable, who will help fix the problem and/or how long will it last. The author creates many more situations throughout the book to get the readers to ask questions. The main message in the story was, although life is grand and pleasure is everywhere, we can't have everything we want every time we want it. On page 84, Alfred Cane, who once had chocolate fever himself, taught Henry the lesson that too much of something isn't always good for you. So relating it back to Henry, Alfred was saying he can't have chocolate every time he wants it.

Henry loves chocolate - he would (and does) eat chocolate as often as possible: chocolate milk, chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate sauce on top of everything...until one day he gets "Chocolate Fever" and is covered in big chocolatey spots. Henry's love of chocolate starts to waiver as he gets poked and prodded by doctors and teased by other children. How can he get rid of his chocolate fever??This is a cute story, but I think the kids today will have a hard time relating with the main character. There are just too many things that are different about today's world than when the book was originally written. Henry gets into a truck with a stranger and thinks nothing of it, whereas kids would balk at that today.

This is one of the book selected for this year's Battle of the Books competition. Can you imagine eating too much chocolate? Well Henry Green leanrs important lesson in moderation in this wacky taleabuot overindulging.

Henry Green loves chocolate and that was normal to him, but then he started to see brown spots all over his body and it got more and more so he ran away. Next, the robbers take him to somewhere... it wasn't bad thing at all because he got a solution for it from someone else! This story used lot of imagination so it was special.

Henry Green has spent his whole life eating anything and everything chocolate with no consequences. Then one day he starts feeling funny and notices some brown spots on his arm. He then started smelling of chocolate. He got scared and ran away. I truck driver picked him up and tried to get him to call home when he was hijacked by robbers. The robbers thought there were valuables in the truck but it was only candy. Henry helps save the day and gets the cure for his chocolate fever. He also learns a little self control in the process. We just got through reading this in school. All of the the 4th grade had read it now. The kids really seemed to enjoy it. they even laughed out loud a couple of times. I thought that it was a pretty good book and will probably read it with them again next year. For this one I would probably use the story as a spring board for healthy eating and living. We would go over the food pyramid and daily exercise routines. All of this after, of course, a party with a chocolate fountain where the children can brin in different items to try dipped in chocolate. Yum!

Easily one of my favorite books as a kid.