Bibliography Schmidt, Gary D. 2007. The Wednesday Wars. Read by Joel Johnstone. New York: Sandpiper. Audiobook. Plot Summary Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High School in Long Island, New York. Each Wednesday, Holling’s Catholic and Jewish classmates spend their afternoons at their respective churches in religious instruction. Holling, however, is a Presbyterian, meaning he is doomed to spend each Wednesday afternoon with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. Initially, he believes she “hates his guts.” Mrs. Baker has him reading Shakespeare, cleaning erasers, and writing essays. However, as Holling finds the “Big M” (motivation), he learns more from Mrs. Baker than he could have ever imagined. This coming of age tale combines the feelings of early adolescence with the political and social uproar of the 1960’s seamlessly. You will find yourself rooting for Holling, laughing with (and at him at times), and losing yourself in the feelings of young Holling as he grows up before your eyes. Critical Analysis The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt is one of those great works of historical fiction that truly reads as fiction with history happening in the background. Schmidt is known for seamlessly combining fictional events into an accurate historical context. That is exactly the case in this book. Holling Hoodhood is your typical seventh grade boy, navigating friendship, family, first love, and school. Holling is funny, sincere, caring, athletic, smart, and loyal. His character is well developed and has the ability to make the reader laugh and cry, sometimes in the same chapter! Any middle school age reader, especially boys, will be able to identify with and relate to Holling. Mrs. Baker also plays a key role in the book, helping Holling learn important life lessons and providing a different perspective to the story. Through the context of the story, Mrs. Baker becomes one of those once-in-a-lifetime teachers that motivates Holling and provides him with amazing opportunities (like playing ball with members of the New York Yankees!). The other characters in the book are just as interesting and engaging as Holling. There’s Mr. Hoodhood, Holling’s conservative, successful father, his sister, Heather, a peace loving “flower child,” and Mai Thi Huong, a Vietnamese refugee in Holling’s class. These characters build the context around Holling that make the story come to life. Holling’s first love, Meryl Lee, and his friends Doug and Danny are all characters that complement Holling and bring to life the social relationships of middle school students. Holling lives in a small community on Long Island. Schmidt vividly describes the small town feel from the school, to the community, to Holling’s “perfect” home. At one point in the story, Mrs. Baker shows Holling parts of the town with some historical background that changes the way he, and the reader, view it. Even though the setting is in the 1960s, the picture that is painted is so clear, readers of all ages will have no difficulty imagining what it was like to live in that time. This story is truly a coming of age story for Holling. Within the main plot of the story, however, there are several subplots that draw the reader in. The Vietnam war and the implications it had on the cultural and society of the 1960s is a big part of the subplots. Friendship and navigating junior high issues is another major subplot. Even with multiple story lines weaving in and out together, the story holds firm and is interesting, funny, relatable, and educational for the reader. The Vietnam War and growing up in this time of social upheaval is depicted so brilliantly, you find yourself lost in that time. One interesting piece to story is Schmidt’s interjection of Shakespeare into the narrative. Holling and Mrs. Baker read and study Shakespeare together. Holling even performs The Tempest in the local theater. They both use Shakespeare as an outlet for expressing their feelings, connecting to each other, and describing the world around them. The themes of this story really tug at the reader’s emotions. The Vietnam War and its effect on the culture of he 1960s is a huge theme of The Wednesday Wars. Schmidt does an excellent job providing multiple perspectives from multiple characters to really help the reader feel what the characters felt during that time. Another major theme was, of course, growing up. Holling’s character changes and matures throughout the story, finding himself and realizing he’s stronger than he thought he was. One of the most emotional themes in the story was that of family. Holling realizes through the actions of his father and his relationship with his sister what family and love really means. Overall, this book is a well-written piece of historical fiction that tells the tale of Holling Hoodhood, a seventh grader during the 1960s, in a way that reflects the voices of seventh graders everywhere. It is seamless, interesting, and a great read to engage readers in a text that they can connect with and learn from in many different ways. Response This book was a gem! I enjoyed listening to it in audiobook format, with Joel Johnstone providing wonderful narration. I usually find myself “zoning out” during audiobooks, but Johnstone’s narration really made the story come to life. Seeing Holling’s relationships change over time was incredibly interesting and engaging. I especially loved the relationship between Holling and Mrs. Baker. When Holling describes Lieutenant Baker’s return at the end of the story, I found tears in my eyes, as I did when Mrs. Baker took Holling around their town and showed him the landmarks in a way he had never seen them before. This story touched on so many feelings, emotions, and stages of growing up. I couldn’t help but love it! This is a title I will recommend for years to come! Honors 2008 Newbery Honor Book Reviews “Johnstone brings to life one of the most endearing characters to come along in some time. Holling Hoodhood is starting seventh grade in 1967. It is a time of change, not just for Holling as he begins his journey into adolescence, but for the world around him as well. The war in Vietnam is raging and the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy hang heavy on the American consciousness by the end of the school year. And for Holling, the world of nascent relationships lies before him, not to mention, baseball, camping and the constant excitement, wonder and terror of being 11 at such a volatile time. Johnstone's first-person narration perfectly captures Holling's progression from an angst-filled yet innocent boy, to a wiser, self-aware young man. His reading is touching, funny and insightful; he manages to bring the listener back to a time—real or nostalgically re-imagined, at least—when the crack of a bat against a ball in Yankee Stadium or sharing a Coke with a girl at the Woolworth's counter was all any boy could want. This is a lovely, heartfelt novel, read with as much care as the author used to create it.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review (audiobook) “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.” – Booklist, starred review (audiobook) Connections
Other Notable Books by Gary D. Schmidt
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AuthorMy name is Mrs. Scott and I'm a secondary Media Resource Specialist (librarian) in Texas. This blog was created as part of my graduate coursework at Texas Woman's University. All reviews and opinions are my own.
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