The Wednesday Wars

Title: The Wednesday Wars
Author & Illustrator: Schmidt
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007
Awards : Newbery Honor, 2007
Genre: Realistic Fiction, novel
Age Range: 7th grade and up

Summary: This story has so many parts that I am not even sure where to begin. Holling Hoodhood is narrator, and main character, of this story. During his seventh grade year at school, in 1967, Holling faces some challenges. One of these challenges is that he believes his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. Why? you might ask. Well, on Wednesdays when everyone in school is dismissed to go to Temple or Mass, Holling stays at school. He is the only Presbysterian in his class. First, Mrs. Baker makes him do the worst chores such as clean erasers and the rat pin (which is a whole different story when they get out.) But then, Mrs. Baker realizes she has something better for Holling to do, read Shakespeare. At first, Holling hates it. Eventually he really gets into it. He memorizes lines, acts in a play, and even catches a date with some Shakespeare. Holling himself didn't know he could connect so much to an old man and his plays. Although Holling and Mrs. Baker may not "hit it off" at the beginning, they become close friends. Holling learns that Mrs. Baker's husband is in the Vietnam war and is missing him greatly. Holling also makes great friends, besides Mrs. Baker. Meryl Lee and Mai Tai became two of my favorites. Although Holling lives in the "perfect house" and his life may seem pretty wonderful so far, it isn't. Holling is supposed to inherit the fortune of an architectural business, Hoodhood and Associates. However, Holling wants to make this decision for himself. This is very much a story of self- discovery.

Response: I could not put this book down! It definitely captivated me, from the very beginning. I literally laughed out loud to this book, and at times almost cried. I really loved how Schmidt captured emotion. He also had very "round" characterization. Although there were a lot of characters, Holling, Heather, Meryl Lee, Mrs. Baker, Mai Tai, Danny, Coach Quatrini, Doug Swieteck, Mrs. Sidman, and many others I feel like I got to know each and everyone of them very well. Although Holling grew up in a different time than me and is a lot different than me, I feel like I connected to him well. He was trying to find himself, make his own decisions, connect to things (like Shakespeare), find love, and enjoy life! Seventh grade is such a hard time, anyways. I know that I experienced all of these things. Especially the "find love" part. In the seventh grade I wanted a boyfriend so bad! And one day, I literally flipped over in a chair for one! Holling experienced embarrassment, too. He learned how to get through it and move on, as did I. Holling is also a very smart boy. I have taken an entire class on Shakespeare and I learned more about reciting and memorizing lines from Holling than I did in an entire semester! (Toads, Beetles, Bats!) I really loved this book. It is so dynamic and so many things can be pulled from it.

Teaching Ideas: There are so many teaching applications to this book. I do not think it would be a good read-aloud, though. It has too much dialog and I feel students would get lost. I do think this would be a great book to do a double-entry diary with. The teacher could split up the reading into sections. By the end of each section, the student should have at least five connections made with the book. Honestly, I wish I would have done this while I read. This book is just so dense and there is so much to pull from. This would definitely make the reading experience more valuable and worthwhile. I also think this book could be used as a springboard to talking about war. It definitely talks about society at the time of the Vietnam war. Readers get a good sense of how everyone sat down to hear Walter Cronkite, everynight. These social repercussions would be a great topic to talk about. This book could also be used to jump-start reading Shakespeare. Students could see that Holling had a good time with it, so maybe they would be more likely to give the old man a chance! "The Wednesday Wars" could also be included in a coming of age unit/section of the classroom library.

Please, please, please go check out this book. There is too much for me to tell you here. You will really enjoy it and never look back!
--jeana