The Wednesday Wars

I was very impressed with Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars. In fact, I'd say it was fantastic. I wouldn't expect much less since it was a Newbery Honor book in 2008 (as a sidenote, I'd never heard of the winning book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village until today). This story was vastly different than what I expected, which is to say that I really didn't read the book jacket very carefully!

The story is centered around a sixth grade boy named Holling Hoodhood (nope, it isn't a misspelling:). We watch him over the course of his school year, particularly focused on Wednesdays. Why Wednesday? That is the day when half of his class goes to Catholic school at 1:45, and the other half rolls out to synagogue shortly thereafter. His teacher, which Holling thinks is out to kill him, starts off by having him do menial tasks around the classroom: clean erasers, clean out the put cages (rats mind you!), etc. Later she has him read Shakespeare, which he really dislikes because of the old world writing that is difficult for an adult, let alone a 6th grader, to understand.

What makes the story captivating is the backdrop. This is during the late 60's when the Vietnam war is happening. This touches many in the story, from the teacher (Mrs. Baker) to others in the school community. Walter Cronkite is being watched at night, and there is a bit of tension that the reader can feel as the story winds onward. Lastly, you have the family with a strong willed father (determined to be the businessman of the year), the mom who is going along with the will of Holling's father, and Holling's sister who listens to the Beatles and runs away to find herself. All the while you follow Holling as he struggles to find himself and grow up in middle school. The growing up plays back into Mrs. Baker's assignments to Holling of reading Shakespeare. Overall, well done.

Rating: 5 out of 5. Growing up is a theme in many stories, but it is done masterfully in this story. It made me really excited to read Okay for Now, a follow-up of sorts to the Wednesday Wars (but with one of the side characters as the main character... it is high on the Mock Newbery lists I've read thus far).