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.