The Wednesday Wars Book Review

 









The Wednesday Wars


1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars. New York Scholastic Inc, 2007. ISBN: 78-0-547-23760-2


2.  PLOT SUMMARY

 Holling Hoodhood is the only student in his 7th grade class that is not Jewish or Catholic. He, therefore, must spend Wednesday afternoons with Mrs. Baker reading Shakespeare. When he’s not reading, Mrs. Baker has him completing chores like banging erasers together, taking tests, and cleaning the rat cages. When he goes to transfer the rats back into the cage, they escape into the ceiling where they haunt the school for months to come. His Shakespeare monologues lead to him performing as a fairy in front of classmates. His bully is never far away to take advantage of his misfortunes and tortures him throughout the book. His dad is constantly interrogating him on if he is making a good impression as his architecture clients have ties to the school. Throughout the months Hollings faces situations where he is hated by classmates, the cross country team, his bully, and the rats in the ceiling. In the end he finds his true self and his true friends, and that Mrs. Baker truthfully loves him. 

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Wednesday Wars is an excellent depiction of life surrounding the Vietnam War on Long Island. Each character is well developed and relatable except for Mrs. Baker. She has an air mystery surrounding her. The plot of the story is Holling Hoodhood is the only student in Mrs. Baker’s class that does not go to temple or to Catechism classes on Wednesday afternoons. Hollings sensationalizes many of the incidents that happen in the book. Case in point the opening lines say that Mrs. Baker hates him and develops more hatred for him. Meanwhile, he is dealing with a strict and image driven father, a flighty mother, and a flower child sister strongly against the Vietnam War. The chapters cover the months from September to June. Throughout the tasks Mrs. Baker sets forth for Hollings, he realizes he may not have it all figured out and is still finding himself. The setting takes place in Long Island in the middle of the Vietnam War. It touches everyone’s life including staff at his school. The lunch lady loses her husband and Mrs. Baker’s husband has been missing in action for weeks. Long Island is depicted as the upper side is for the Jewish families, the lower side for the Catholics, and the middle for the Hoodhood’s who were Presbyterian. The theme of this story is finding your true self. There are many characters who go through this transformation throughout the book. I love the style of the book written in months in first person told from Hollings point of view. Shakespeare is intertwined into his vocabulary especially for curses. This story is seamlessly told in the time frame of the late 1960’s with references to Walter Cronkite, RFK ,and the Vietnam War. There are no author’s note or inspiration page but it is evident Gary Schmidt did his research to make this book align with the genre of historical fiction. The Wednesday Wars received the 

Newberry Honor Award in 2008. This book will resonate with junior high grades as the struggles faced by Hollins and his friends still apply to current times. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Booklist starred (June 1, 2007 (Vol. 103, No. 19))

Grades 6-9. On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates attend religious instruction, Holling Hoodhood, the only Presbyterian in his seventh grade, is alone in the classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who Holling is convinced hates his guts. He feels more certain after Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare’s plays for Holling to discuss during their shared afternoons. Each month in Holling’s tumultuous seventh-grade year is a chapter in this quietly powerful coming-of-age novel set in suburban Long Island during the late ’60s. The slow start may deter some readers, and Mrs. Baker is too good to be true: she arranges a meeting between Holling and the New York Yankees, brokers a deal to save a student’s father’s architectural firm, and, after revealing her past as an Olympic runner, coaches Holling to the varsity cross-country team. However, Schmidt, whose Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2005) was named both a Printz and a Newbery Honor Book, makes the implausible believable and the everyday momentous. Seamlessly, he knits together the story’s themes: the cultural uproar of the ’60s, the internal uproar of early adolescence, and the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare’s words. Holling’s unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open.

5. CONNECTIONS

Similar books:

Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for Now. Overseas Editions New, 2013.ISBN: 978-0-547-15260-8 




Spector, R. H. (2024, April 7). Vietnam War. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War

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