There is a new eSports after school club. It won't replace football which was cut but maybe the new computers and hype will generate some excitement. The students who join decide to form teams and compete over the semester playing a really popular game based on WWII called The Good War. But as things progress the teams get too competitive and one side even starts bringing in symbols and clothing and even ideology that reflects the Axis side. Can the students learn from the past in order to heal the present and prevent things like this from happening again.
At one point in the book I was getting a bit concerned with the audience and then the exposure to the hate speech and symbols, especially in the chat room scenes. And then there was the conversation between the teacher and principal and I even discussed the book with my daughter (very smart, history major). There really is a balance of exposing our students to hateful language and internet safety so they don't get sucked into it.
I have been around for a while and knew the name Todd Strasser but for some reason I was associating him with more fluff pieces - not sure why. As I read the end of the book and saw that he wrote The Wave back in 1981 I remembered reading it and seeing the after school special. That was 40 years ago... and we are still dealing with it. Sigh.
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