The Wednesday Wars
Author:
Gary D. Schmidt
Publication:
2007 by Clarion Books
Genre:
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages:
272
Current state:
This book has been evaluated and information added. It has been read but content considerations may not be complete.
Book Guide
Holling Hoodhood is really in for it. He's just started seventh grade with Mrs. Baker, a teacher he knows is out to get him. Why else would she make him read Shakespeare . . . outside class?
The year is 1967, and everyone has bigger things to worry about, especially Vietnam. Then there's the family business. As far as Holling's father is concerned, the Hoodhoods need to be on their best behavior: the success of the Hoodhood and Associates depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? Rats, for one thing; cream puffs, for another. Then there's Doug Swieteck's brother. And Ariel's costume: tights. That's just for starters. In a series of mishaps and adventures over the course of the school year, fate sneaks up on Holling again and again.
Gary D. Schmidt has written a novel that is at turns comic and compelling, down-to-earth and over-the-top. In The Wednesday Wars, he offers an unforgettable antihero in Holling Hoodhood, a kid from the suburbs who embraces his destiny in spite of himself.
From the dust jacket
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Gary D. Schmidt
1957 -American
Gary D. Schmidt is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has written books about authors Katherine Paterson and Rob... See more
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Content Guide
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Resource Guide
Podcast
The Wednesday Wars
Released in 2023 by Plumfield Moms Podcast
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 1 hr. 5 min.
View on the Plumfield Moms Podcast site
Reviews
The Wednesday Wars
Reviewed by Sara Masarik
This book is brilliant and hilarious while also being poignant and tender. Mrs. Baker, as it turns out, doesn’t hate Holling’s guts, and is, in fact, one of his most authentic advocates by the end of the year. What starts as an experiment becomes something powerful as she and Holling read and discuss the works of William Shakespeare together on those awkward Wednesday afternoons. It is clear that Gary D. Schmidt himself loves Shakespeare, and he deftly weaves the themes, ideas, and situations of Shakespeare’s plays into the lives of the students, faculty, and families of Camillo Junior High.
The Wednesday Wars
Reviewed by Matt Berman
Parents need to know that Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt, is a poignant coming-of-age story involving the funny misadventures of Long Island, New York, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood and his unlikely discovery of Shakespeare in the turbulent academic year of 1967-68...
The Wednesday Wars
In 1967, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood lives in the “perfect” house in New York....
The Wednesday Wars
Reviewed by Betsy Farquhar
Holling Hoodhood comes to appreciate more than Shakespeare in this humorous historical fiction middle school novel....
The Wednesday Wars
Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms....
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