Mr. Griffin

I hated this book. I couldn’t finish it. It’s a horrible story about killing an innocent person simply because they don’t like the way he teaches. I didn’t like one single character in this book, except maybe the teacher’s wife who was also pregnant with their child, which makes the whole thing even sadder. I can’t understand why anyone would want to use their writing skills to create such a sad story. I’m mad at myself for even picking it up. I guess I thought it would be something like people going after a teacher who actually did something really horrible, like kill or rape someone and they were getting revenge. Not this.

my 7th grader had to read this for school. he LOVED this book and HATES to read like most boys. So hard to find good books which interest our young men. Great job to the author.

We've all had a teacher like the eponymous Mr. Griffin who, by refusing to contribute to grade inflation and massage his students' self-esteem, contributes to years of future therapy. Most of us, as a rule, though, do not respond by kidnapping said teacher and inadvertently killing them.Mr. Griffin may have good reason for his teaching policies, but his students are still too young to see things from his side. All they know is that English is no longer the breeze it was last year. So a group of students, the charismatic but sociopathic Mark, class president David, star athlete Jeff, and Queen Bee Betsy decide to teach the man a lesson. They enlist class geek Susan McConnell to be a decoy, which complicates things because she out of the entire group has a conscience. Eventually, things fall apart due to both poor planning and sheer bad luck.Unlike some teen books, this one attempts to give the various adults' viewpoints as well as the students. It raises some questions about nature or nurture, but can be read simply for entertainment.

Bought it for a friend....her favorite book? Holy cow. Seemed a bit leaky to me, holes in the plot and characters, not well written for youth or adult reading. Some love it I guess....Not my choice.

Killing Mr. Griffin is an older story, but still a compelling read. Once I started, I had a hard time putting it down. I don't see many psychological thrillers for teens today. It was a nice change of pace from wizards and vampire romances. While the outcome of the book was a little predictable, it was still an enjoyable read and it kept me turning the pages to see if I was right. I would certainly recommend Killing Mr. Griffin to teens and adults alike.

This book was part of a High School required read. Turns out it was a great book to read.

This was an excellent book to show how one bad decision can lead to another until you are in serious trouble.

I like it very much! Will recommend it to my friends if they need it!

An excellent book. I read it as a teenager and recently re-read it as an adult. It made me realise what great taste I had in books as a teenager! It's fascinating to learn about the different characters involved- each with their different reasons for their involvement, and each digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves. Lies upon lies, while, as a reader, you also get the unique insight into Mr Griffin himself - overly critical and pedantic, certainly, but essentially a good man with high standards and a determination to bring out the best in others. And his loyal and clever wife. The book gives you a glimpse of the impact of such ill thought-out actions on the shape of people's lives. I suppose the only disappointment was not feeling any real insight into the character of Mark. I didn't think there was any attempt to explain why he was the way he was. I'm sure nature has an influence, but it's not the whole story. What was his life like before the stuff with his dad and why did he develop to be the person he did?The surprise for me was seeing references to "cell phones" (as our friends, the Americans call them) and Google. Now I'm no detective but something tells me this book has been updated before it was re-released. I have no idea whether anything else has been changed from the original, but would be interested to know. I am hopeful that the release of this book means other titles will be released soon. Until recently, I notice they were quite hard to get hold of.Anyway, all in all, a very good book. Highly recommended.

Look my ten year old loves this author! Well worth the read.

I first read this many years ago when I was a teenager and loved it then. With all the teenage books appearing in the adult chart in the local supermarkets (ie Twilight, Evermore, etc), it got me thinking about the books I read as a kid, and browsing Lois Duncan on Amazon to see if my favourites were still available. I ordered my 3 absolute favourites and have just read Killing Mr Griffin (in a day)! Fantastic. Her books may be aimed at young adults but are still just as enjoyable to an adult who is way way past being a teenager. Clever, clever plot and wonderful story telling. Wonderful. Can't wait to reread the others.

Ja, ich lese gerne und viel. Sowohl in Deutsch als auch in anderen Sprachen u.a. Englisch.Der Klappentext klang interessant, aber schon kurz nach Beginn, verfolg jegliche Freude am Lesen.Ärger mit einem Lehrer, dass kennen die meisten Schüler: Nur wie weit würde man gehen, ohne sich Gedanken über die Konsequenzen zu machen?Mr. Griffin ist an der High School für seine rigiden und strikte Lehrmethoden bekannt: Homework assignments sind *pünktlich* und vollständig abzugeben. Ausreden und 2. Chancen gibt es nicht. Er will seine Schüler darauf vorbereiten, dass sie später *gut* am College zurecht kommen, weshalb er sie *hart* ran nimmt.Die meisten Schüler verstehen dies jedoch nicht und hassen ihn, insbesondere ein Schüler, der wegen Mr. Griffin das Schuljahr wiederholen musste, will ihn leiden sehen. Mark hatte versucht mithilfe seiner Ex-Freundin zu betrügen, was nicht geklappt hat, seitdem hasst er ihn.Jeff, ein Sportstar, versteht nicht, warum Mr. Griffin ihm ggü. keine Nachsicht walten lässt: "Wir hatten am Vorabend ein Spiel..."David Ruggles, eigentlich ein Einser-Schüler hat bei Mr. Griffin einen schweren Stand, eine schlechte Englischnote könnte sein Stipendium gefährden, aber wegen einer unvollständigen Hausaufgabe, bekommt er eine 6 und der Lehrer akzeptiert *keine Entschuldigung*.Sue hat normalerweise *keine Probleme* mit dem Lehrer, er gibt ihr 2er, weil sie oft die Aufgaben gut erfüllt und sich an die Regeln hält. Sie beteiligt sich am Plan, weil sie für David Ruggles schwärmt.Betsy, ist eine verwöhnte Cheerleaderin, die sich mit Mr. Griffins Methoden nicht anfreunden kann. Sie bekam Ärger, weil sie die Aufgabe nicht erledigte. Sie hätte sie nicht verstanden, fragte jedoch nicht nach!)Sue soll den Lockvogel spielen, damit Mr. Griffin von den Jungen enführt und an einen *geheimen Ort* verschleppt werden kann. Die Entführung klappt und sie lassen den gefesselten Lehrer ohne seine Medikamente zurück. Als Sue und David am Abend nach ihm sehen, finden sie ihn tot auf.Anstatt die Polizei zu rufen, versuchen die Teenager alles zu vertuschen. Jeder der 4 Mitverschwörer bekommt von Mark genaue Anweisungen, die exakt auszuführen sind.Zur Wertung:Okay, es gab gute Ansätze im Buch, die Motivation der Schüler und die des Lehrers waren gut dargestellt, aber sonst...1 Stern gibt es für die Motivation von Brian Griffin, warum er als ehemaliger College Dozent an einer High School unterrichtet.Den 2. Stern gibt es für die Charakterzeichnung, obwohl sie bei Jeff und Betsy zu oberflächlich bleibt.Es ist eine überarbeitete und redigierte Fassung, die ursprünglich in den 1970er Jahren spielte. Nun in die heutige Zeit verlagert wurde. (Handy, I-Pod...)- Leider wurde schlampig gearbeitet. Viele Seiten des Buches weisen Fehler auf: Wörter, die falsch zusammengeschrieben wurden, weil z.B. ein Lehrzeichen vergessen wurde, oder an der falschen Stelle eingesetzt wurde (wasa ...) 1- oder 2-mal wäre ja noch zu ertragen gewesen, aber bei über 50% der Seiten, ist es zu viel.- Die Handlung zieht sich zuerst dröge dahin und dann überschlägt sie sich gegen Ende.- Es gibt *keinen Abschluss*, sondern ein offenes Ende, so dass unklar ist, welche Strafe nun die 5 Teenager erwartet.- Optionale Lösungen werden nicht in Betracht gezogen (Kurswechsel, Gespräch mit dem Lehrer,....)- der Zufall taucht für meinen Geschmack zu häufig auf:Bsp: "secluded place, nobody knows about it" - außer der Exfreundin von Mark, die dort *zufällig mit ihrem Verlobten picknickt und dabei auf Medizinflasche und Grab stößt.Dieses Buch kann ich leider nicht empfehlen, da es zu viele Fragen gab, die bis zum Schluss offen blieben.Aber, am besten lest Ihr es selbst und bilde euch eine eigene Meinung!

I had to read this book, "Killing Mr. Griffin", for my English class. It's about a group of Highschool students, who don't like their English teacher because he is very strict and doesn't give any second chances. This is why they want to kidnap him and scare him. Obviously, like you can predict from the title of the book, they kill him.I think this book by Lois Duncan is a pretty acceptable read, but not the best book you'll ever have read. It's interesting characters' personalities evolve. In the beginning they just seem like normal teenagers. After the incident with Mr. Griffin has happened though, you can really see what peer pressure does to these teenagers.I feel like the book has kind of long passages in it that are really boring to read, to me at least. It is a decent book though. It's also pretty easy to understand, so the language is not too difficult.So my conclusion is: Killing Mr. Griffin is not a book that will change your life completely and it probably won't be a total page-turner for you either. But if you really like crime stories and you're searching for an easy read, you should definitely give this one a try.