My school is performing this play in March, but I read the book to get a better idea of the characters. I'd give it a PG-13 rating, but as soon as kids are old enough to understand and accept some of the more mature themes, they should read it. It's the story of Charlie, a mentally disabled man, who is "operashuned" so that he is given artificially enhanced brain cells - or, as Charlie says, it helps him "get smart." But as Charlie grows more and more intelligent, Algernon, the mouse who was originally tested, begins to regress and even become slightly insane. The last few chapters are suspenseful as the reader tries to discover if the same will happen to Charlie.
This is a must-read for high school and middle school students, in my opinion. It gives a beautiful picture of humanity and kindness - and it also stabs the reader with a little bit of guilt. You have to wonder, would I be one of those people who treated Charlie with contempt before he was a genius?
This book gets an 8/10 rating from me. :D Anyone else read it?
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Ahh, I JUST finished reading this book. Very sad, but extremely good, and I think Daniel Keyes did an amazing job narrating as Charlie.
This book is my favorite book from middle school and i can't think of a better book to be made into a play. It would force the audience to step outside of their comfort zone for a few hours and experience the life of someone much less fortunate than they are. Wow you wanna talk about sad, wholly crap is it sad. I love it though. The ending is fantastic.
I've read the origional short story version, but not the full novel.
I read this in 8th grade, and this book depressed everyone, but it really upset me. There were so many places I wanted to cry. My great aunt is mentally retarded, so it has always been my great grandmother's and (since my great grandfather has died) my grandmother's job to take care of her, so it's real hard to be reading that when you have someone in your family that is the same way. Although my great aunt is worse, i would say she is much more handicapped.
It's an amazing book, and everyone should read it. I should read it again, I think we read a bridged copy...
Wonderful book. I'd recommend it for anybody.
I've read it (well, part of it, because it had to be returned to the library) but it really touched me. I didn't cry or anything, but I thought it was a really good book and I should probably try to read it again.
I read this book a while back and I thought it was really good. It made me cry, especially when he started realizing the way people were treating him.
I haven't -read- it, but it was the very first play I was in when I was in high school. We performed it my freshman year. Granted, I was just an extra who didn't do much and didn't even say much, but it was still a cool play to be in. I don't remember much about it, though. I do know that it was that play that I met my...at-one-time-best-friend who's still my friend in because she was an extra, too. I wish I could remember more about our performance of it.