Rereading The Chocolate War at 41 flipped my take on it

I hated this book when we had to read it in 9th grade. Thought it was just about a kid getting bullied and the ending felt so unfair. But last month I picked it up again after my niece got assigned it and they tried to pull it from her school in Phoenix. Reading it now I see how it's really about how groups pressure you to go along with things, and how that Jerry kid refusing to sell the chocolates is a bigger deal than I gave him credit for back then. It made me think about whether I'd have the spine to stand alone like that at 41, and honestly I'm not sure I would. Anyone else change their mind about a banned book they first read as a teenager?

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