WAVE, THE

Morton Rhue is the pen-name of Todd Strasser. He was born in New York in 1950 and is the author of more than 120 novels for young adults and children. The Wave was made into a film in 1984, and has been translated into many different languages.

"The Wave" is based on a true incident that occured in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969.The powerful forces of group pressure that pervaded many historic movements such as Nazism are recreated in the classroom when history teacher Burt Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long "The Wave, " with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and action, " sweeps from the classroom through the entire school. And as most of the students join the movement, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize the frightening momentum of "The Wave" and realize they must stop it before it's too late.