this is my second book for the readventurer challenge.

this book is very...sweet. and ordinarily,a sweet book would make me feel like i had chiggers or something else foul crawling under my skin, and its earnest gee-whizzery would make me feel unclean just because of my mental rolodex of words that are more satisfying to say in moments of astonishment or crisis than "gee whiz."

but this one was different. this one was entirely wholesome, yeah, but wholesome and satisfying like fresh-baked bread, a More...

A Review in Two Parts

Part One
Ariel, recommended this book to me, and she wrote a fine good review of the book. You can find it by clicking on her name.

I really liked the book, but didn't love it. I think the things I didn't love about the book were me being a crank. For example, the myopic narrator view point of a seventh grader was great; it caught the distortions that a kid sees the world through and the way teachers and others outside of their own circle are depersonalized into roles instead More...

Holling Hoodhood’s got a problem. It’s 1967, and he’s just started seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, and his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Every Wednesday afternoon, half of the kids in Holling’s class go to Hebrew school and the other half go to St. Adelbert’s for catechism. And Holling, as the only Presbyterian in the class, stays behind with Mrs. Baker.

And Mrs. Baker makes him read Shakespeare. Outside of class.

What follows is a year in Holling’s life, a year of Wednesdays with Mrs More...

At first I thought this book was too young for me. The protagonist is a 7th grader, an age I am far past. It was a bit slow at first and my initial conclusion was: This would be great book for a middle school boy, especially one you want to get interested in Shakespeare, but not so great for the general reader.

And then I kept reading and realized that this was a brilliant, touching and funny book. Schmidt is excellent at making believable, nuanced characters--not something I often see at books a More...

Oh it's the season to read the books we adults want children to read, and in actual fact they have no interest in doing so. Wednesday Wars sadly falls into that catagory.
It's 1968, and Holling Hoodhood is stuck with his teacher every Wednesday afternoon when the rest of his class attends religious education classes that their respective places of worship.
Holling learns to love Shakespeare, and how to run a good race, and he learns to understand his teacher, Mrs. Baker, and to love his older si More...

I love this book. Love, love, love, love, love, love. Love.

First, it takes place on Long Island, which I didn't even know when I ordered it for the library. So, sure I got an extra chuckle out of Schmidt's description of LI in November than the reader from, say, Nebraska will. But still, this is just an adorable story and you don't have to be stuck on the Long Island Expressway to enoy it. It reminds me of Richard Peck, if Richard Peck wrote about 1960's surburban life and not 1930's Illinois. More...

I think I have come to understand what it takes for a book to be awarded Newbery. It seems these Newberry awarded books are just so wholesome, so full of great life lessons, so sweet and touching in a non-nauseating or preachy way. The Wednesday Wars is just like that.

13-year old Holling Hoodhood is in trouble. While his Jewish and Catholic classmates attend religious studies on Wednesday afternoons, he, the only Presbyterian in his class, is forced to spend this time with his English teacher Mr More...

If I had the option to give 6 stars to The Wednesday Wars, I'd do it. I giggled out loud at least 30 times on the bus *and* the train, earning myself a certain public transit notoriety as That Annoying Lady With The Book. And most people didn't even notice me getting teary during the poignant parts. Of course I'd heard glowing reviews of this book, but I didn't love Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, so I was skeptical. But no longer. Gary Schmidt, please write more!

It's 1967-68, and Hollin More...

Really charming. It was the same kind of nostalgic book as Penny From Heaven, but better-written, funnier, and more real-feeling. (This one has its obvious parallel in a really good episode of The Wonder Years.) This reminded me of older books about boys coming of age, like It's Like This, Cat and Onion John; but I think the language is wholly modern and accessible. I thought it was so much better--tighter, I guess--than Trouble.


Also, a question: looking at the other reviews, and thinking of rev More...

This is a beautiful book, so I reviewed it for our librarian blog at work.

Holling Hoodhood has many things on his mind. The U.S. is at war with Vietnam. His older sister has painted a flower on her face. His father is trying to run the town’s other architect out of business. And Holling’s teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. You see, every Wednesday after lunch, half of the kids in Holling’s 7th grade class go to the Temple Beth-El for Hebrew School. The other half goes to St. Adelbert’s for Cat More...

Holling Hoodhood is one of the most enjoyable characters I have read. I love his attitude and his outlook. I also enjoyed the other characters especially his teacher and lunch lady. It is set in 1967, which was a tumultuous year for everyone and especially for a 7th grade boy. He is dealing with so much from family troubles to social to political. Such a clean enjoyable read. I enjoyed watching his relationship with his teacher evolve. What a fabulous teacher and style. I do agree with Holling, More...

This book was absolutely fabulous! I enjoyed every minute of it. I was very surprised to find out that it was more than just a Jr. High kid putting up with bullies. It was about life and how you deal with different trials no matter what your age is and everyone deals with these trials in different ways. I am totally serious when I say that I laughed and cried and ignored my family until it was done. It is very worthy of the 2008 newberry award.

Without too much effort, you could probably come up with a dozen or so books of the Teacher-Who's-Totally-Mean-At-First-Develops-A-Mentoring-Relationship-With-The-Student-And-There-Are-Some-Life-Lessons-And-A-Bunch-Of-Growing-Up-Happens Genre, but dollars to doughnuts, none would be quite as good or as fun to read as Wednesday Wars. Toads, beetles, bats, I loved it--as the Bard might say. This one could probably work as young as fourth grade.

Absolutely LOVED this book! Not only was I laughing the whole way through it but I was fascinated by the writing. Now I have to go out and buy it so I can read it again and again and study the writing. And of course enjoy the story. Too funny!

Re-read: Enjoyed it again! This is such a great book.

All of the people who gave this book five stars can't be wrong, can they? Well, I've been in the minority before, so I guess I'll put myself there again because I really do not think my middle-school students will understand the humor in this book. It reads as an adult's nostalgic look back at his seventh-grade year during the Vietnam War. Although the situations that Holling, the main character, finds himself in are supposed to be funny, I didn't find them to be humorous because of the undercur More...

Wednesday Wars is a rare piece of literature that feeds the soul. Schmidt creates a plot that skims along the positive side of life, occasionally dipping into the deep, heavy emotions of loss and love. Holling Hood Hood is content with his shallow existence as a sports loving, cream puff craving young man skipping through his urban wonder years during the late sixties. An unexpected relationship develops between him and his teacher, Mrs. Baker. Because Holling is mostly ignored by his ghostly mo More...

The narrator is a 7th grader who is suffering through the usual trials and tribulations of adolescence. In particular, he becomes a cross country runner, learns a love for Shakespeare, and finds a mentor in his English teacher. The entire story is written very much in a Leave It to Beaver "golly gee oh shucks" voice. At one point the narrator can't even say the word "butt" *in his own interior monologue*.

What modern day teen would identify with a Leave it to Beaver world? What (straight) 7th gr More...

On Wednesday afternoons at Camillo Junior High half of the class goes to Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El and the other half goes to Catechism at St. Adelbert’s. But Holling Hoodhood is Presbyterian so he stays with his teacher on Wednesday afternoons. At first the teacher gives him tasks to do like clean the chalk boards and erasers. But soon she has a better idea: she teaches him Shakespeare. Holling thinks this is all intended to torture him. But his teacher’s nefarious plan doesn’t work becau More...

I enjoyed this gentle coming-of-age story set in Long Island in 1967. Holling Hoodhood's seventh grade year is memorable because of what happens to him and around him. Much of the novel focuses on Holling's relationship with his English teacher, Mrs. Baker. At the beginning of the year, Holling is convinced that Mrs. Baker has it in for him. On Wednesday afternoons when half the class goes to Temple and the other to CCD classes, Holling (the lone Presbyterian) is stuck with Mrs. Baker. She makes More...

I loved this book.

Takes place in 1967, Long Island...Holling Hoodhood, the one Presbyterian in a 7th grade sea of Catholic and Jewish peers, is the only student left in Mrs. Baker's English class on Wednesday afternoons (when all others leave for Catholic and Hebrew lessons)...and he is sure that Mrs. Baker is out to get him. So begins The Wednesday Wars. Or rather, so begin the Wednesday Wars.

The chapters are broken down into the months of a schoolyear. Holling's Wednesdays with Mrs. Baker turn More...

Gary Schmidt is genius. As a professor of English he admittedly has an edge in the world of writing and his amazing talent could not be more obvious than it is in this book. Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grade boy who has to learn Shakespeare and finds ways to apply the heroes and stories from those plays to his own crazy life. This is a story of friendship and family during the late 1960's and I highly recommend it.

I listened to this book in the car and on my Ipod and loved it. I wanted something my 23-year-old and 16-year-old could listen to with me on a road trip so chose a young adult book. It takes place in the late 60's during the Vietnam War and is about a jr. high boy, Holling Hoodhood, who learns there is a lot more to his teacher than he ever would have imagined. He learns to read Shakespeare and understand it, and he learns that teachers have lives too. Mrs. Baker's husband is MIA and he sees her More...

I enjoyed this book and thought it did a good job of relating a condition of feeling like an outsider without using race or ethnicity. Instead, the main character feels left out because on Wednesday afternoons, half of his class leaves to go to the Catholic church and the other half leaves to go to the synagogue. He's Presbyterian, so he gets to stay put with the teacher, who he has determined is out to get him...hence the Wednesday wars. Maybe I'm a little partial because I'm Presbyterian and g More...

Holling Hoodhood is exasperated when he finds out that he is going to be spending every Wednesday afternoon with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. He knows that she hates his guts, why else would she make him read Shakespeare? Over the course of 7th grade Holling grows and learns that sometimes things are not always what they seem.

I thought that this was a good book - I read it because I was recommended it, and I had loved, "Lizzy Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt. I enjoyed the characte More...

All I can say is WOW! What a beautifully written book. The symbolism is phenmomenal, and the realism of the characters and what they lived through is beyond words. My favorite kinds of books are what I like to call "slice of life" books. Books that let you in on the everyday, normal existence of an everyday, normal person. That is where the true miracles exist - the love/hate relationship of a brother and sister, the secret life of a lonely teacher, the first crush of a 7th grade boy, and the ef More...

Wednesday Wars engages the reader at so many different levels. I instantly fell in love with protagonist, Holling Hoodhood, and the impending sense of doom that peppers his wry telling of his story. And who wouldn't be fatalistic in his circumstances? On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates leave school to receive religious instruction, Holling, the only Presbyterian in his class, is left alone with his teacher Mrs. Baker, whose Wednesday afternoons he has single-hande More...

I felt like I needed a lighter read, so I chose the audio version of The Wednesday Wars after hearing some good feedback on the 2007 Newberry Honor book.

The year is 1967 and the Vietnam War is in the news. Lyndon Johnson is President and Holling Hoodhood is in the seventh grade, learning about Shakespeare.


Holling Hoodhood is the only Presbyterian in his grade, so he has to stay in the classroom with his teacher Mrs. Baker on Wednesday afternoons while his classmates attend Hebrew school or Catec More...

I read this book anticipating a light-hearted novel about a 7th-grader in Vietnam War-era America. I wasn't disappointed - I laughed and laughed and laughed. I was surprised by how much depth the novel had, though, as it deals with issues like wartime prejudice. Rated G.

I can't really do this book justice in my review, so I'm including an excerpt:

"And then, suddenly, there he was. Doug Swieteck's brother, on the other side of Camillo Junior High, waiting for a school bus to turn the corner so th More...

Life is tough at Camillo Junior High for seventh grader Holling. Each Wednesday afternoon as the rest of his classmates leave school to attend religious instruction, Holling reads Shakespeare with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. Even though he's convinced she hates him, Mrs. Baker helps Holling prepare for cross country tryouts and a Valentine's Day date with Meryl Lee, gets him tickets to opening day at Yankee Stadium, and often takes the place of his too-busy-to-care parents.

Set during the 1967-68 sc More...

The Wednesday Wars
Gary D. Schmidt
Historical Fiction
264 Pages

Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High in, New York. On his first day, he instantly feels that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. This is because Holling is Presbyterian, and on Wednesdays while other kids go to a religious class, Holling is the only one who stays back in class with Mrs. Baker. However, Mrs. Baker and Holling become close after having spent much time together. Mrs. Baker introduces Holling to Sha More...