Forget-Me-Nots: The War Between The Classes

This is a feature on my blog for highlighting books I enjoyed in childhood and the teenage years that I don't see getting much attention nowadays.

The War Between the Classes by Gloria Miklowitz

Goodreads' description:

"What are Amy and Adam going to do about their love life? Neither Amy's traditionalist Japanese parents nor Adam's snobby, upper-class mother will accept their relationship. To make things worse, Amy and Adam are involved in the "color game" at school, an experiment that's designed to make students aware of class and racial prejudices.


Now the experiment threatens to alienate Amy from her friends and tear her apart from Adam. She knows it's time to rebel against the color game. But will the rest of the class follow her lead?"


I know the message of this one is pretty obvious, but I really enjoyed seeing how the social experiment was implemented and played out among the students. The 'game' is quite structured, with plenty of rules about who can and cannot do certain things, and the potential for moving up and down the social strata. We also get to see some great character growth from Amy, in her rebellion and her relationship with Adam (who, frankly, always irritated me, even once he is shown as supposedly having learned his lesson.) It's good to keep in mind that this one was written in the 1980s, so some aspects (I thought particularly the gender role issues) may seem a little less than modern.

Has anyone read this book? What did you think?