The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

 

            The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt, revolves around the adolescence of Holling Hoodhood during the late 1960s. Holling lives in the New York suburbs and is just starting seventh grade at a time when the Vietnam War is raging and the civil rights movement is tearing across the country. On Holling’s first day of seventh grade, he decides that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, wants to destroy him. What makes the whole predicament worse is that Holling must stay with Mrs. Baker on Wednesday afternoons while all the other seventh grade students get to leave. Half of the class is Jewish and attends Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El, and the other half is Catholic and attends Catechism at Saint Adelbert’s. Since Holling is Presbyterian and does not have classes, he must endure horrible Mrs. Baker all by himself on Wednesday afternoons. The predicament becomes even worse after his family gets involved. Holling’s father is the owner of Hoodhood and Associates, a local architecture agency that just so happens to be a contender to do architectural work for the Baker Sporting Emporium. Mrs. Baker’s family owns the Baker Sporting Emporium, so that means that Holling must be extremely cautious that he does not make Mrs. Baker angry and ruin his family’s opportunity. Mrs. Baker makes Holling clean erasers and complete other nifty jobs during their initial Wednesday afternoon get-togethers. Holling manages to ruin a cluster of delicious cream puffs that get a group of women sick and let two revolting class pets escape during that time. She then decides to make Holling read Shakespeare during their time to avoid any more catastrophes from happening. Mrs. Baker realizes how much potential Holling has, but he dreads the thought of reading books like Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. Holling simply does not have faith in himself and is not very outgoing. However, as they begin reading, Holling discovers that Shakespeare is not half bad. He begins using a colorful set of insults that only a person who reads Shakespeare would know. Holling slowly develops a new sense of confidence that was missing in his life. 

             Holling performs in the Long Island Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest, gets a girlfriend, and joins the track team. Holling also finds that the evil Mrs. Baker is not as bad as he thought she was. She takes him to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium after his father lets him down. Mrs. Baker becomes a great friend to Holling during his times of need. By the end of the book Holling realizes that the only thing holding him back is himself. He does not have to worry about pressure from Mrs. Baker, his father, or anyone for that matter. Holling realizes that it is not wrong to do the right thing even if other people may disagree with it. By reading and learning Shakespeare, Holling learns many important lessons and gets a deep sense of confidence through the experience.

            I enjoyed reading The Wednesday Wars even though it is not necessarily an exciting book. It does not have a climatic ending that takes your breath away. However, it makes up for that by having a strong plot and an intriguing set of characters. While Holling struggles with the pressure weighing on him from Mrs. Baker and his father, we see how the other characters deal with their problems. Mai Thi is from Vietnam, and she faces prejudices that she does not deserve because of her race. Danny has a bar mitzvah to worry about. Meryl Lee’s father is also the head of a major architecture agency and gets pressure from him too. Doug has a big brother in eighth grade that is a bully to him and Holling, who fears Doug’s brother and sees him as a threat. The story also shows how well the time period is affecting everyone. Mrs. Bigio, the school lunch lady, grieves the loss of her husband who died in Vietnam Mrs. Baker’s brother is fighting in Vietnam.  She manages to get through teaching her students without going into a nervous breakdown from fear that her brother is dead or missing. Holling’s family even experiences tension between Holling’s father and his sister Heather. Heather thinks of herself as a flower child out to change the world, and she bickers with her conformist father over politics and other worldly events. She ends up running away in order to find herself but gets lost in Minnesota with no place to go. Holling manages to get her money for a train heading for New York. The book shows through Holling and the other character’s stories that people can overcome their problems if they have the right mindset. I would suggest this book to any teenager feeling that their problems are too big to handle. 
Reviewed by John