Book Review: The Wednesday Wars

Read September 23, 2010

In The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt, Holling Hoodhood is off to a really bad start in the school year with his teacher Mrs. Baker, who he thinks hates his guts.  First, Holling starts spending Wednesday afternoons with Mrs. Baker, when everyone else goes to Catholic or Jewish religious programs.  During that time, she decides to make him clean all the chalkboard erasers in the junior high.  Then, Mrs. Baker decides that cleaning the erasers is a waste of time, so they start reading Shakespeare together instead, which to Holling is worse than cleaning erasers. She also makes Holling read the plays at home, and his dad makes him do that to make Mrs. Baker happy, because he wants a contract to be the family sports store architect.  Next, Holling’s knowledge of Shakespeare gets him into a sticky situation in which he has to play Ariel, the faerie in a community showing of the “Tempest”.  In the play, he has to wear bright yellow tights and a shirt with feathers on the butt. He will also have to miss Mickey Mantle signing autographs at Baker Sporting goods.  After that, Holling’s dad brings him to a job interview for the architect of the new Camillo Junior high school, because he wants Holling to see how to be an architect and that it’s a blood sport. Holling also decides that he doesn’t want to follow his dad into the architectural firm, but he’s afraid to tell his dad that.  Finally, Holling attends his friend, Danny’s Bar Mitzvah and stands up to his dad to tell him he doesn’t want to be an architect because he wants to take control of his own life.  Holling also figures out that when you feel you’re a man, you’re a man and nobody can tell you otherwise, even your dad! 

In my opinion this was a pretty good book.  The beginning was funny and light, but the ending got more serious.  My favorite part is when Holling uses Shakespeare’s swears instead of modern profanity.  I would recommend this book to most seventh graders who may like the story of an unlikely hero and his journey through life, with lots of mishaps along the way.