The Wednesday Wars Review Part 2

While I still don't absolutely love this book, I am definitely enjoying the story line! There's so many things going on in the story which I like and dislike about the book. On one hand it has so much going on (so much dialogue) that I have a hard time keeping things straight, but on the other hand it has so many warm, heartfelt moments that are so good for young adults to read. Oh, and Mrs. Baker? She grows on you. Throughout the second half of the book quite a bit happens to Holling and some of my favorite moments revolved around Holling's family life or Mrs. Baker. 

In February, Holling is afraid of looking cheap since he has no money but desperately wants to ask Meryl Lee out for Valentine's Day. Sassy Merly Lee who's been in love with Holling since the third grade. I'm about to type an entire page worth of words but it's one of my absolute favorite scenes because I think that many students who have read Romeo and Juliet have felt the same way as Holling. 

"Let me tell you, these two wouldn't make it very far in Camillo Junior High. Never mind that Romeo wears tights - at least according to the pictures - but he just isn't very smart. And Juliet isn't too strong in that department, either. I mean, a potion to almost kill you? She drinks a potion to almost kill you? Who would drink a potion to almost kill you? Then Romeo goes ahead and drinks a potion that will kill you because he can't figure out that she's only had a potion that almost kills you? And then Juliet, who at least is smart enough to figure out that Romeo really is dead, makes sure that she uses a knife this time, which is not almost going to kill you, but really will kill you? Doesn't this sound like something that two people who can't find their way around the block would gt themselves into? Of course it does." I found this paragraph to be so funny! I love Shakespeare but I, and I think many readers, can relate to thinking similarly if they've read Romeo and Juliet. And I think that Gary Schmidt was smart to use italics throughout this paragraph to highlight "almost" and "will" because it adds character and gives the writing an expressive voice. 

Throughout the next few months, Holling's sister runs away to California to "find herself" after constant fighting with their dad over politics, Mrs. Baker's husband goes missing in action, and Holling discovers that he's a talented runner. As the book progresses, Mrs. Baker begins to seem like a normal person with her own struggles and feelings. Not just a cold-hearted witch who hates children. She ends up coaching Holling on Wednesdays and he finds out that she was a Olympian in track and field. So that's handy! She takes a few of the boys to opening day at Yankee stadium, takes the kids on a camping trip, and even ditches bomb drills to take Holling on a field trip to appreciate some of the city's famous architecture, She does so much for Holling and you can see him growing. I love when Holling's father demands for Holling to decide where he's headed and Holling bravely stands up for himself and happily says that he doesn't know. Such an important lesson for kids! You don't have to know where you are going and have all of the answers right away! They will come over time.

"Eleven days later, on Wednesday, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker came home...I guess you want to know what Mrs. Baker did when Lieutenant Baker came out of the plane. And I guess you want to know what Lieutenant Baker did when he saw Mrs. Baker on the tarmac. But toads, beetles, bats. If you can't figure that out for yourself, then a southwest blow on ye and blister you all o'er. Because let me tell you, it was a happy ending." 

Such a good ending! Although kinda weird that all of her students were there to see Mrs. Baker and her husband reunited. But everyone was happy in the end of the book, people had grown as individuals, and it was summertime! I enjoyed how Holling began to grow as he read and learned about some of the big themes in Shakespeare's work. Mrs. Baker did so much to show Holling how much was out in the world and how to become a good person.

This book was jam packed full of so many funny moments that you can't help but love them all. I could go on and on with all of the quotes that I loved, but here are a few that made me laugh inside or think deeply. 

"The light made the snowballs look yellow. Or at least I hoped that was the cause."

"I almost cried. But I didn't, because if you're in seventh grade and you cry while wearing a blue floral cape and yellow tights with white feathers on the butt, you just have to curl up and die somewhere in a dark alley."

"I saw my town as if I had just arrived. It was as if I was waking up. You see houses and buildings every day, and you walk by them on your way to something else, and you hardly see. You hardly notice they're even there, mostly because there's something else going on right in front of your face. But when the town itself becomes the thing that is going on right in front of your face, it all changes, and you're not just looking at a house, but at what's happened in that house before you were born."

"When a girl holds a rose up to you, you run better, let me tell you."

"A comedy isn't about being funny...a comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all."

One of my favorite extension activities based on the book is to have small groups of students take different months from the book. Each group would have to prepare a chart, slideshow, or some sort of presentation which includes all of the main events that occurred during that month. I think this would help students recall scenes that they might have forgotten about and also help them visualize all of the main events throughout the book. Shakespeare was a big part of Holling's journey and it would also be interesting to see groups take different works of Shakespeare that Holling read and then create a visual or presentation explaining what Holling learned from that play. Friendship and finding yourself were two of the biggest themes in this book which I'm not sure how to create a lesson around finding yourself so it would be interesting to hear the opinions of others!

The Wednesday Wars Part 1

The Wednesday Wars is so far a humorous story about the daily life of seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood. Not Holling Hood. Hoodhood. After a bit of reading I realized that Holling's story was based in the 1960s and my first clue was during Gary Schmidt's description of "the Perfect House" and Holling's mother. The couch cushions were covered in "stiff, clear plastic" which definitely reminded me of the 50s or 60s and then his mother standing "...in the kitchen, fanning air out the open window and putting out a cigarette..." I may be the only one but that reminded me of a 60s housewife. Finally, they were listening to a report on Vietnam casualties and I finally knew the exact setting. It seemed to take longer than 7 pages to figure it out though!

The story is full of heart and funny situations, and even though the story line is interesting, I'm not loving the book simply because it's not interesting to me, there are so many characters, and the book seems to nearly be all dialogue.

Holling Hoodhood isn't Catholic and he isn't Jewish. It just so happens that he is the only Presbyterian student in his school so he spends every Wednesday afternoon cleaning closets, beating chalkboard erasers, cleaning boards, and causing Wives of Vietnam Soldiers to nearly choke to death on chalky cream puffs. The only thing that I was looking forward to finding out was why Mrs. Baker seemed to hate Holling and if things would change for him. Every Wednesday, the Jewish students leave for Hebrew school at 1:45 and the Catholic students leave at 1:55. Holling is convinced that Mrs. Baker hates him simply because he's the lone student that she's stuck with. When trying to get help from his parents, Holling is forced to be polite to Mrs. Baker and do whatever she asks so that his dad can land an upcoming project with Mrs. Baker's brother-in-law. Are you confused by all of the characters yet? I sure am.

One of the things that I don't love about the book so far is how many characters there are and how hard it is, at least for me, to keep them straight! Within the first few chapters we were introduced to Holling, Mrs. Baker, Doug Swieteck, Mrs. Sidman, Daniel Hupfer, Holling's mom, Holling's dad, Holling's sister, Meryl Lee, Doug Swieteck's brother, Mai Thi, Mr. Guareschi, Mr. Petrelli, Mrs. Bigio, Sycorax, Caliban, and Mr. Vendleri. Did I forget any? Most likely! If this is confusing to me it has to be confusing for students! I think the best thing to do as a teacher would have students make character maps to try and help keep everyone straight. Character Graphic Organizers

Holling is forced to clean erasers, clean Sycorax and Caliban's cage and then chase the screaming and hissing vermin, and eventually Mrs. Baker forces him to begin reading Shakespeare. Pure misery for a seventh-grader, but Holling eventually enjoys the plays and I especially loved the part where Holling practices curses like "the red plague rid you!" and "toads, beetles, bats, light on you!" at home and on his classmates! One of my next favorite parts so far occurred when Holling realized that sometimes your heroes aren't exactly as you've dreamed. Clad in yellow tights and feathers he sees his hero for the first time up close. Mickey Mantle. When he reaches his hero and hands him a perfect new baseball to sign, Mantle breaks the little boys heart and says, "Listen, I don't sign baseballs for kids in yellow tights" and then tosses the baseball to the ground. Holling's heart broke and my heart broke! And then Danny, who just got his ball signed, gives his autographed baseball back to Mantle to stand beside his friend. How sweet was that?! I loved the quote which perfectly describes why I never want to meet my heroes. What if someone you've idolized for so long turns out to not be anything like you hoped and dreamed?

"When gods die, they die hard. It's not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you're not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you'd ever want another god to fill their place. You don't want fire to go out inside you twice."

So far this book has offered plenty of discussion topics and extension activities which are perfect for the upper elementary level. I think it would be really interesting to do an activity around Flower Power. I doubt any of the students would know what a flower child is or why Heather painted a flower on her cheek. Students could research the Vietnam anti-war movement and create some sort of poster or presentation on important protests and the reasoning behind them. Lessons on heroes, courage, and kindness would also work perfectly with the text. Vocabulary lessons for every chapter would also be extensive and so helpful to students. The book is full of words like coagulated, menorah, billowed, rhetorical, foresight, vanquished, asbestos, etc. All of which students may or may not know but would definitely make for an interesting vocabulary list!

The Wednesday Wars is a story of friendship, getting through humiliation, Shakespeare, and so much more. Despite the book being jam packed full of dialogue and not interesting me nearly as much as The BFG or Hatchet, I am looking forward to finishing Holling's year of Wednesdays.

Hatchet Review Part 2

As the second half of the book began, I definitely wondered how long it would go on for until Brian was either discovered or finally decided to start hiking south. I honestly didn't expect him to stick around the camp for the entire time! I thought the book might get boring but honestly it was full of thrilling and terrifying experiences! There was only one teeny chapter where I got a tiny bit bored. 

There were quite a few places in the book where I kept questioning what I was reading...would that really happen? While picking berries, Brian stumbles upon a mama bear and her cubs. The mama bear defends her cubs but does not attack Brian. Maybe the bears simply haven't interacted with humans, but from what I've heard and know not many mama bears would simply let a human go unharmed after coming that close to their babies. Unless its an inspirational movie. Or a book. And it's not that I was annoyed by this part in the book in any way...I definitely think it added to the magic and story of the book...I was just being a little bit too realistic. And forgetting about luck and magic. 

I literally have not been more terrified while reading a book then when I was reading about the moose attacking Brian. I've been within touching distance of moose and have heard crazy stories from my dad who used to live in Alaska so I know how dangerous they can be. I cringed and covered half of my face while reading this part of the book...I was that terrified of the outcome. "As soon as he moved, the hair on her back went up and she charged him again, using her head and front hooves this time, slamming him back and down into the water, on his back this time, and he screamed the air out of his lungs and hammered on her head with his fists and filled his throat with water and she left again." Moose. Drowning. Gary Paulsen writes such terrifyingly realistic passages. Moose can be incredibly cute and sweet but one wrong turn and it's all over.

And then the tornado. Brian can literally not catch a break! Moose, skunks, porcupines, tornadoes, it goes on and on. And a tornado in Canada? I had to google that and sure enough Canadian tornadoes are a thing! When the wind woke him up he described it as a "low roaring sound that came from wind...a far-off roar but coming at him". At first I thought it was only a windstorm because I couldn't imagine a tornado in the northern forests of Canada, but I was wrong. "He was whipped against the front wall of the shelter like a rag, felt a ripping pain in his ribs again, then was hammered back down into the sand once more..." This book is so vivid and artistic but it's also heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. Maybe I read this on a rough day but this part of the book nearly had me in tears...I was so tired of seeing Brian struggle and feel hopeless. All I could see was my 13 year old brother in that sort of situation and imagining what he would be going through. 

"A flip of some giant coin and he was the loser."

Brian became discouraged throughout the book and rightfully so! However, he always managed to pick himself up and get back to surviving. Of course I think this is an amazing lesson for young readers and the lesson is relayed in such a terrifyingly and attention-grabbing way. Don't worry Brian was rescued in the end! The tornado brought the plane up from the bottom of the lake and Brian was able to retrieve an emergency transmitter, gun, food, and everything that would have been so useful this entire time. A pilot hears his emergency transmitter and finds Brian diving into the glorious food. What if Brian had never been able to find the emergency transmitter? Would he have stayed at the camp and possibly died or would he have finally decided to leave the camp? 

Hatchet Review Part 1

Simply amazing. It could be because I grew up loving the outdoors, loving stories about adventures in the wilderness, because of the book's writing, or any combination but regardless I love this book. It was a riveting, intense, and incredibly fast read. Brian Robeson is a 13 year old boy flying in a single-engine Cessna to visit his father for the summer. While en route from New York to the oil fields in northern Canada, disaster strikes and Brian ends up crash landing in a wilderness lake, surviving storms, living off the land, and facing multiple tragedies. I could write for ages about this book. Gary Paulsen takes the reader on a vivid and emotional journey which I enjoyed every last bit of it. Well nearly every last bit.

In the very beginning of the story, the pilot lets Brian take over flying and Paulsen does an amazing job at describing what that actually feels like. While I was reading it, I felt like I was young again and flying in my dad's Cessna for the first time. It's hard to describe how thrilling and terrifying it is to take over the controls but Paulsen does a wonderful job. "Brian reached out and took the wheel in a grip so tight his knuckles were white. He pushed his feet down on the pedals. The plane slewed suddenly to the right. 'Not so hard. Take her light, take her light.'" I can remember my shaky hands grabbing the wheel and how the tiniest of movements were so drastic! "The burning in his eyes was forgotten momentarily as the vibration of the plane came through the wheel and the pedals. It seemed almost alive." There's something so amazing about being in the air and having complete control over the aircraft. Brian's experience was so enjoyable to me as it reminded me of flying with my Dad.

If I thought the flying experience was written well, I was amazed even further when the pilot had a heart attack. It was so real, so lifelike, I could see the pilot seizing in front of me and I almost couldn't read it. "And now a jolt took him like a hammer-blow, so forcefully that he seemed to crush back into the seat...The pilot's mouth went rigid, he swore and jerked a short series of slams into the seat, holding his shoulder now. Swore and hissed...one more awful time he slammed back into the seat and his right leg jerked, pulling the plane to the side in a sudden twist and his head fell forward and spit came. Spit came from the corners of his mouth and his legs contracted up, up into the seat, and his eyes rolled back in his head until there was only white. Only white for his eyes and the smell became worse, filled the cockpit, and all of it so fast, so incredibly fast that Brian's mind could not take it in at first. Could only see it in stages. The pilot had been talking, just a moment ago, complaining of the pain. He had been talking." Wow. And we're on page ELEVEN. I don't know how Paulsen described something so vividly...maybe he himself saw someone have a heart attack? Regardless, it was too realistic.

Fast forward a few pages and the plane's about to crash. Honestly while reading about the plane getting closer and closer to crashing, I was predicting what would happen, and since we had already learned about the planes emergency bag I assumed that Brian would be fine. Nope! Surprise! He crash lands and the plane sinks...buh-bye handy emergency kit with food and rope and flares and anything else that would come in handy after crash landing. And again, throughout all of this Paulsen brings the story to life. The range of words: viciously thirsty, foul, scrunched, ruefully, lumpy are perfectly used throughout the story. This book is one of those rare books, at least for me, where I can see a movie playing in my mind while I'm reading. I love it!

"And he was, at that moment, almost overcome with self-pity. He was dirty and starving and bitten and hurt and lonely and ugly and afraid and so completely miserable that it was like being in a pit, a dark, deep pit with no way out. He sat back on the bank and fought crying. Then let if come and cried for perhaps three, four minutes. Long tears, self-pity tears, wasted tears."

"So fast, he thought. So fast things change. When he'd gone to sleep he had satisfaction and in just a moment it was all different. He grasped one of the quills, held his breath, and jerked. It sent pain signals to his brain in tight waves, but he grabbed another, pulled it, then another quill...The pain filled his leg now, and with it came new waves of self-pity. Sitting alone in the dark, his leg aching, some mosquitos finding him again, he started crying. It was all too much, just too much, and he couldn't take it. Not the way it was."

So much of this book is heart wrenching, and, although it is full of failures that Brian experiences, he also succeeds and slowly learns to become at home in the wilderness. Living off of fish, berries, and dealing with a wide assortment of wild animals, this story is anything but a romanticized crash-landing story.

There are a plethora of extension activities that can be based around Hatchet. The vocabulary throughout the book is rich and students could write down new words that they come across in each chapter. Then you could create an extensive class vocabulary list for the book. Furor, oblivious, audible, ruefully, haunches, grimacing, etc. There are obviously questions you could create around what if students were in Brian's situation, but I would love to ask them questions such as the following. How might the pilot's treatment of Brian as an adult have helped save Brian's life? (The pilot let Brian control the airplane which gave him some confidence and experience in flying) What makes the first chapter so dramatic? Why are some phrases repeated? There are also plenty of fun graphic organizers to help students read effectively, improve their comprehension, etc. Hatchet Graphic Organizers

The BFG Review Part 2

From start to finish, The BFG was full of imaginative characters and a balance between whimsical and fright. Through the second half of the story, Sophie helps the Big Friendly Giant gather his courage and create an ingenious plan to put a stop to the giants' nightly terror. With a little help from the Queen of England and nine "bellypoppers", Sophie and the BFG end their adventure with an exciting capture and a funny twist at the end (it involves snozzcumbers). 

Bravery is a major part of this book and I loved in the chapter, The Great Plan, how Sophie and the BFG worked through their discouragement and dismay to come up with a brilliant plan that would solve everything. The portrayal of bravery, perseverance, and encouragement is incredibly important for young readers! Although the book does have a darker side, it is definitely an ultimate adventure. I wish I had a giant who could run so fast that I felt like I was flying while I hid in his pocket. Roald Dahl's style of writing and descriptions make you feel like you're actually seeing everything unfold as you read.

The feelings that this book invoke are also amazing. On page 154 the story reads, "Dawn came at last, and the rim of a lemon-colored sun rose up behind the rooftops somewhere behind Victoria Station. A while later, Sophie felt a little of its warmth on her back and was grateful. In the distance, she heard a church clock striking. She counted the strikes. There were seven." I could see the lemon-colored sun coming up, almost feel the warmth of the morning sun, and hear a loud English clock striking. Passages like this fill the book and capture the reader's imagination. 

One of my favorite themes in the book was the importance of dreams. I love the idea of dreams being real things that are floating around and I would absolutely love to visit the land of dreams and find my own! A fun art project for students would be to create a dream jar like the ones the BFG used to store dreams that he captured. You could make them in so many different ways using all sorts of things like: glow-in-the-dark paint, glitter, glue, cotton balls, food coloring etc. They would be such a fun project and kids would have their own dream jar! Starry Night Luminaries Glitter Jars 

It could be just because I love breakfast but The Royal Breakfast was a fantastic chapter! Imagining Mr. Tibbs and servants scurrying around to build a table and make breakfast for the BFG was absolutely comical. "That was only one titchy little bite." Perspective can be hard for kids (even me) so I appreciated these parts of the book that helped put the size of the BFG into perspective. He experiences coffee, eats all of the eggs and bread, and has a grand time! This book is full of so much emotion and entertainment that I think it's a great read for kids!