When someone who tends to make good recommendations to you tells you several times that you will probably love something–listen. I finally picked up Gary D. Schmidt and The Wednesday Wars on audio, and I adored it. From first sentence to last, this book was so full and rich and true in every way. I laughed in a way I haven’t laughed listening to audio in well over a year, and I cried. I cried because it was too touching and real and perfect not to.Never before have I read a book that more exemplified the home where I live now–Long Island, New York, despite the reality that it shows a very different island than you see today. Being a (seemingly) lone protestant in a predominantly Catholic and Jewish population can be every bit as awkward as Holling would have you think. Luckily, I never had a 7th grade English teacher with a vendetta against me because of it. I loved the mentions of Eisenhower Park, Jones Beach, and other locals I’m so familiar with. A historical tour of the area made me want to explore my local history more, and spend more time exploring outside of New York City (in fact, since finishing I have visited a nearby historical township just because).At it’s heart, The Wednesday Wars is sort of a slightly-older, slightly more-recent, less Midwest version of A Christmas Story. And coming from me, there can’t really be a higher compliment to a kid’s story. Holling Hoodhood’s experiences and emotions vacillate from elated to horrified in that same way, with these everyday occurrences becoming the most ridiculous and monumental, and I loved it. Gary D. Schmidt captures the atmosphere of the time so perfectly that as a listener I was transported to the 1960s, breath catching at news of Vietnam, Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., and certainly sympathizing with Holling’s sister who so clearly wanted more from life than what was being offered her.But as it is set in its time, The Wednesday Wars also transcends time in our ability to relate so personally. We have all, at least I dearly hope, had that one teacher who will change our lives forever. For Holling Hoodhood, it is Mrs. Baker. And I’m pretty sure that Holling Hoodhood will be that one student that changes Mrs. Baker forever as well. Though their relationship begins tenuously, their warfull Wednesdays soon transform into something more–into a kind of mentorship and love affair with William Shakespeare, and a challenge to be met gladly. This is the book that will make many kids want to pick up that famed playwright, and those of us who have long loved him to look back and smile. And just perhaps we’ll all start calling one another “pied ninny”s instead of “mother _____”s.The Wednesday Wars is one of those unassuming little books that manages to pack so much real emotion and true human connection into its parts that I am left baffled. There is the experience of friendship and first love, of bullies and killing one’s heroes, of triumph and defeat. Oh, and some pretty epic rats. Holling Hoodhood’s family dynamics smacked so much of the time. His father may be one of the worst fathers I’ve read about in terms of selfishness and neglect, despite the non-abusive nature of his existence. His sister was one of the most intriguing side characters I’ve come across for some time–I couldn’t help but thinking I’d love to read her story as well. I know it would be entirely different from Holling’s, but that it wouldn’t be any less full of emotion or meaning.There couldn’t have been a more perfect narrator for The Wednesday Wars on audio than Joel Johnstone. I’ve personally only listened to his narration once before (in Thirteen Reasons Why, where it was also stunning), but he’s quickly becoming one of those narrators to seek out. In this case, I definitely feel as if the story was enhanced by its format, and really recommend this one on audio for those of you who enjoy listening.Original review posted at Bunbury in the Stacks.
Holling Hoodhood’s got a problem. It’s 1967, and he’s just started seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, and his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Every Wednesday afternoon, half of the kids in Holling’s class go to Hebrew school and the other half go to St. Adelbert’s for catechism. And Holling, as the only Presbyterian in the class, stays behind with Mrs. Baker.And Mrs. Baker makes him read Shakespeare. Outside of class.What follows is a year in Holling’s life, a year of Wednesdays with Mrs. Baker and life in general. It’s 1967, and his sister wants to be a flower child, and his father owns the architecture firm Hoodhood and Associates and sees Holling as The Son Who Will Inherit Hoodhood and Associates. There are rats, and cream puffs, and Doug Swieteck’s brother. There are telegrams and baseballs and tights (with feathers!) and atomic bomb drills.This is a quiet book that gets you in all the right places. If I had to sum it up in a phrase, I’d say it was about how people surprise you—sometimes in bad ways, and more often in very good ways. It’s about heroes—the ones you create for yourself, and the ones that you discover. It’s about finding your way when the world is confusing. It’s about being in seventh grade, and learning that it’s not who you are that matters, but who you decide to be.This book made me laugh out loud on the subway, those big belly laughs that make strangers think you’re crazy. It also made me cry, no less that four times. This is not a book with great tragedy, but it is a book with great power. It’s a book that made me feel.I read it slowly, reading and rereading each line and word, savoring the chapters. But I didn’t horde it, didn’t put it down and save it for later, because I could. not. stop. reading.I just couldn’t. It wasn’t so much that I needed to know what happened—it was more that I desperately wanted to hear Holling’s voice in my head some more. I wanted more afternoons with Mrs. Baker.This is the kind of book that you read and reread, and then read bits aloud to the people you care about, because you want to share it with them. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel like you really, really know the characters, like what happens to them is important to you.It’s the kind of book that makes you want to read Shakespeare, and more importantly, to curse like Caliban.It’s really one of the best reading experiences I’ve had in a long time. I urge you to read it. I want to talk about the Mickey Mantle episode with you. I want to hear what you think about cream puffs. And I want you to know what I mean when I say, “toads, beetles, bats.” Or “chrysanthemum.”Mostly, I want you to meet Holling Hoodhood and Mrs. Baker, two of my new favorite literary creations. I want them to be part of your life the way they’ve been part of mine since I started this book. I really think you’ll like them a lot.
What do You think about The Wednesday Wars (2007)?
In the year of 1967, Holling HoodHood is entering the seventh grade and notices that his English teacher Mrs. Baker hates him. She tries her best to make his life miserable, but with his Dad's Architect firm HoodHood and Associates vying to get the contract for her family's Sporting goods store, all Holling can do is grin and bear it even when she tortures him with Shakespeare. Will he survive? Read on and find out for yourself.This was a pretty good audiobook that I borrowed from my local library that my mom and I enjoyed. This book made us laugh a lot. Be sure to check this out. It is available at your local library and wherever books are sold.
—Amber
It oozes charm. In the first half of the book, Schmidt really had me. I absolutely loved everything surrounding the incident with the creampuffs and its aftermath. While the charm remained, the second half lacked a bit of direction. It didn't quite stall, but the plot is a very slender reed here. And outside of Holling and Mrs. Baker, the characters are all pretty thin.There's also a fairly horrifying aspect here. During this book, Holling does the following: Appears as Ariel in a local performance of The Tempest; gets brushed by a school bus while saving his sister and landing in the hospital, gets opening day tickets to see the Yankees, goes to Port Authority again to rescue his prodigal sister, runs and wins a varsity cross country match. His parents are not there for any of these things. For his performance in the play, they are too busy watching the Bing Crosby Christmas Special. When he lands in the hospital, they couldn't be bothered. For opening day, his father promises to take him, in spite of already having two prior engagements which he knows he will keep. The father is an incredible asshole, more distant than any Dad I knew of while growing up. And the mom is almost a cypher. With parents like these, its basically a miracle that Holling and his sister grow up with any sense at all. This leaves me wondering: is this how many Boomers think of themselves? As having turned out well in spite of the neglect of their parents?An additional charm of this book for me is that I grew up in the next town over from Hicksville, where this takes place. He never mentions Hicksville in the book, but its where Schmidt is from. Also, I was one of the kids who left our school for religious instruction (on Fridays instead of Wednesdays). That lasted until I got kicked out for arguing with the nuns. Schmidt does such a great job of capturing the spirit of growing up in sheltered Long Island in the sixties. It almost makes me think that most of the book would be lost on its targeted audience. That said, early teenagers recommended this one to me, so it must play pretty well to at least some of the YAs (at least those who don't spend all of their time re-reading yet again the same couple of series).
—Duffy Pratt
This book is written like a monthly diary of a seventh grade boy named Holling Hoodhood. It's supposed to be realistic fiction set in 1967, but the events are about as believable as his name. I didn't like it. Here's why.Everybody around Holling is completely insensitive and cold-hearted, including his father, his mother, his sister, his teacher Mrs. Baker, the school principal, his friends and classmates, Doug Sweiteck's brother, and Micky Mantle. Holling is a complete victim of circumstance. He has the worst of fortune due to everyone's mean spiritedness. And then suddenly and without explanation, his bad luck is completely reversed. Someone just happens to do something extraordinarily nice for him without any apparent reason or motivation. Like when Mrs. Baker, who hates his guts, arranges for some of the Yankees players to come to the school to play catch with him. Yes, him. Or when Kowalski & Associates suddenly backs out of the business contract, leaving Holling's dad to fulfill the contract to build the new junior high school. Or the time Holling wants to buy some cream puffs for his friends so they won't beat him up. He's short a couple of dollars, but the baker just happens to need someone who can play a part in a Shakespeare production, and Holling just happens to be memorizing Shakespeare, so he gets the part, not to mention free cream puffs.Whether good luck or bad, everything that happens to Holling just happens to him. It just happens to happen to him. It's not a result of any choices that he makes. He's on a roller-coaster of luck, but always, always the victim of circumstance. And let me tell you, that does not make for a good story. Really.This kind of complete reversal of fortune is an easy way for the writer to get himself out after he's painted himself into a corner. But it's not an easy thing to read. I felt insulted by the lack of sophistication. I expect a more explanation for how things turn around than sheer dumb luck. And I expect the character's actions to have something to do with it.There is no grander plot. Something terrible and wonderful happens each month. Month after month, beginning with the start of the school year. By March, I had to force myself to finish the book. Toads, beetles, bats.Except for the Holling and Mrs. Baker, all of the characters seemed faceless, like the adults in Charlie Brown. And none of them made sense. Mrs. Baker has a split personality. Holling's father doesn't care about anything or anyone except his business, and everyone that Holling knows just happens to be connected to his father's business, either as a partner, potential partner, or competitor. We never see another side of dad. Not even a twinge of sympathy. Not even a crack of a smile. His friends Danny and Mai Thi torment him at the beginning of the school year, threatening to beat him up. In the second half of the book, they are nice friends. I guess it was because Holling gave them cream puffs. All the students at school act in unison. They all hate Holling's guts or regard him as a hero for having his picture in the paper again and again. As though none of the students have anything better to do than to care what Holling Hoodhood is up to.
—Scott
