The Wednesday Wars is about a student named Holling Hoodhood who has just started the seventh grade and he has a teacher named Mrs. Baker who he is pretty darn sure hates him. He gets stuck with her on Wednesdays and she constantly makes him read Shakespeare outside of class. It is 1967, and Holling Hoodhood is coming of age in the middle of the Vietnam War, and here Holling is stuck with more concerns than just that. Holling's father is concerned about only one thing and that is the family business. He seems to think that every Hoodhood in the family has to always be on their best behavior, he doesn't want anything happening to his family business. Holling is struggling with Shakespeare, Mrs. Baker, being on his best behavior, and being in the middle of the Vietnam War. There's no telling how this could end!
My Evaluation of The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.
The Wednesday Wars is a book that I think any child starting around age seven and up would fall in love with. This book is entertaining and interesting, it definitely keeps you hooked! Holling Hoodhood is different than most children, when he is introduced to Shakespeare by Mrs. Baker, she expects him to hate it. Turns out that Holling actually really enjoys the works of Shakespeare, except for silly Romeo and Juliet as he thinks of it. Holling has a sister, whom we find out way late in the book is named Heather. Heather and Holling are what I think to be the typical siblings, where they have their moments of arguing and hate, but they really do love each other and provide one another with support as most siblings do.
A big feature in this book is Holling's parents, more than anything is his father. I actually came to hate his father due to how he treated Holling and Heather. When Holling brings up Mrs. Baker after he first meets her, his father is merely concerned with how Holling is behaving himself. He says things such as, "Are you going to ruin the family business so you can run it when you're old enough?" He isn't even concerned with Holling. Holling's father is only concerned with himself and the family business, Hoodhood and Associates. Holling ended up being in cast in the play The Tempest, in which he plays a warrior fairy wearing feathers and bright tights. He puts on the performance brilliantly, but there was an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show on that night and clearly his parents couldn't DARE miss that. They didn't even come to pick him up after the show! This made me so angry, they couldn't go out and watch their own son perform for the first time ever one night?! Then later in the book, a snowstorm occurs, a bus goes out of control, nearly hits Heather but Holling saves her! Mrs. Baker takes the two to the hospital to make sure everything was okay, their parents never show up to see they're fine or to pick them up. That was probably what really made me hate both of their parents, them not showing up at the hospital to check on their own children!
This book revolves around a lot of Shakespeare stories, which is what makes me think that this is also a really great story for adults, or those high schoolers who have read many of Shakespeare's stories! The first story he read was The Merchant of Venice, then The Tempest, followed by Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and finally Much Ado About Nothing. I like that each month when he is reading a new Shakespeare story, the events happening in his life seem to match the story a bit. Now, I haven't read every Shakespeare story that is in this book, but I did see similarities in the ones I have read. I think my favorite similarity would be the ones in the month that he read Romeo and Juliet because he ends up going on a date with Meryl Lee, who is his crush and works with the Kowalski architecture firm, which is the enemies of Hoodhood and Associates. Meryl Lee and Holling go out and see Romeo and Juliet together, and talk about their family's plans for their companies. I love that like the real story, they shouldn't really be together but they are. I think that if you know the Shakespeare stories, you may enjoy the book even more, but it is definitely not necessary.
Finally, my favorite part of this book is Mrs. Baker. Holling Hoodhood is convinced that this "mean" lady hates him, especially with the way she treats him at first. Mrs. Baker is definitely an intimidating person, one teacher that I would honestly think would hate me too. Mrs. Baker was really an insightful and wonderful person, she just has a tough exterior. Holling initially thought terrible things of Mrs. Baker, but he starts to learn how she really just wanted the best for him. She was even the one to stay with the kids when their own parents wouldn't show up at the hospital. It made me even happier when Lt. Baker returned at the end of the book! I definitely recommend this book to anyone, it's so enjoyable no matter who you are!
Mischief Managed. :)
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