Schmidt, Gary. The Wednesday Wars. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Summary
The Wednesday Wars is the story of a seventh grade boy with the distinguishing factor of being the only Presbyterian in class. This may seem to be a minor setback in his predominately Catholic and Jewish community, but being Presbyterian means a whole lot more. He is the only student left out of religious training on Wednesday afternoons and the only student stuck in Mrs. Baker’s classroom. Holling is sure Mrs. Baker is determined to ruin his life as he cleans rat cages and reads Shakespeare. Readers will be engrossed by this humorous story of a boy who happens upon a journey of self discovery amongst the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
Critical Analysis
Holling Hoodhood is a relatable and likable lead character. He wins his audience over immediately with his honest, hilarious, and age appropriate descriptions of his town, life, and teacher. His loyal friends and inattentive parents could be from any era, yet fit seamlessly into the 1970s. Holling’s teacher, Mrs. Barker, who serves as both his sworn enemy and eventual ally is sometimes too ideal. Despite this fact, readers will come to admire and enjoy her very human qualities, such as her worry for her own husband fighting in Vietnam and her constant eye rolling and exasperation at the students.
Accurate descriptions of Walter Cronkite’s reports on Vietnam dominating the family’s television, cream puffs being sold for under a quarter, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and “modern” architectural designs mesh together to create the background for Holling’s journey. The time period is paramount to many of the story lines, such as his sister’s efforts to become a “flower child”, but is not the focus of the book. Instead, Gary Schmidt accurately depicts this tumultuous time period from the perspective of a boy who remembers little else. Even young adult readers who know next to nothing of the 1970s will be captivated by Schmidt’s depiction of a boy striving to keep friends, please his parents, and have fun. The classic themes of first love despite enemy families, inner-family conflict, and coming of age make this book a success.
Awards and Review Excerpts
ALA Notable Book
Newbery Honor Book
Booklist Starred Review- “gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy”
Publisher’s Weekly- “serious issues are leavened with ample humor, and the supporting cast...is fully dimensional,”
School Library Journal- “laugh-out-loud moments that leaven the many poignant ones”
The New York Times- “The Wednesday Wars was one of my favorite books of the year”
Connections
Encourage readers to find out more about supporting characters in The Wednesday Wars.
Schmidt, Gary. Okay for now. New York: Clarion Books, 2011.
Suggest these titles to readers who enjoyed Schmidt’s style of writing.
Schmidt, Gary. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster boy. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books, 2008.
Schmidt, Gary. Trouble. Boston: Graphia, 2010.
Learn how the war in Vietnam changed lives through these memoirs and informational texts.
Caputo, Philip. 10,000 days of thunder : a history of the Vietnam War. New York: Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Murray, Stuart. Vietnam War. New York: DK Pub, 2005.
Warren, Andrea. Escape from Saigon : how a Vietnam War orphan became an American boy. New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Help students understand the Vietnam War these fictional texts:
A picture book to open discussion on the lasting impact of war, particularly the Vietnam War.
Bunting, Eve. The wall. New York: Clarion Books, 1990.
A novel following the experience of a trained combat dog and young solider in the Vietnam War.
Kadohata, Cynthia. Cracker!: the best dog in Vietnam. New York: Atheneum Books for Young
Readers, 2007.
A novel in verse describing an American soldier's experiences in the Vietnam War.
Myers, Walter. Patrol: an American soldier in Vietnam. New York: Harper Trophy, 2005.
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