The Wednesday Wars

Today we finished The Wednesday Wars here at home. Last week I started reading it to my seventh graders. It says a lot about this book that all of us at home - a preschooler, a middle grade kid, and two adults - loved it, and that my students are hooked after just one chapter.

My seventh graders want a book to grab them immediately - there aren't many second chances with them. If they don't like the first few pages, they just won't pay very close attention for the rest of the book. They like non-stop action and they like the book to be funny, too. The occasional gross-out humor doesn't hurt a bit. This book delivers on all counts.

Holling Hoodhood is attending Camillo Junior High in 1967. The Vietnam War is in full swing. His sister listens to the Monkees and wants to be a flower child. His dad is a successful architect and expects Holling to follow in his footsteps. Life at school is difficult, particularly Wednesdays, because half of Holling's class attends the Catholic church in town and the other half attends Temple Beth-El, and on Wednesday afternoons the Catholic kids go to Catechism class and the Jewish kids go to Hebrew school, leaving the lone Presbyterian - Holling - to hang out with the teacher, who was thinking she'd have Wednesday afternoons off.

There's a lot going on in this book. The sixties and the Vietnam War, baseball, even Shakespeare. It all works together into a wonderfully satisfying story that, if our experience is anything to go by, can be appreciated by people of all ages. It's hilarious but it brought me to tears a few times, too. I will be looking for more by this author, Gary D. Schmidt, who deservedly won a Newbery Honor for The Wednesday Wars.

This was book #9 for the year. (Only nine and it's already March!)