Saturday, November 19, 2011

Module 5: The Wednesday Wars

Schmidt, Gary. 2007. THE WEDNESDAY WARS. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 978-0-618-72483-3.

It’s 1967 on Long Island. In a novel that covers each month of the school year in separate chapters, Holling Hoodhood happens to be the only Presbyterian 7th grader in Mrs. Baker’s class. Readers may not understand the difficulty of that until they realize that Holling will be alone with the dreaded Mrs. Baker every Wednesday afternoon while his classmates go to either Hebrew School or Catechism class. A 7th grader alone with a teacher who hates him, at least in his mind? Can anything be more of a disaster?

In Holling’s (overactive) mind, it’s a war, the hyperbolic Wednesday Wars of the title, but it’s only one of the many wars he has to fight as he grows up. In 1967, with Walter Cronkite on the news every night to report about the war in Vietnam, his own sister trying to find her identity as a flower child, and the husbands of Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Bigio fighting far away in a “real” war, how important are his wars on suburban Long Island? It turns out that all of the small events, and the understandings Holling takes from them, will help him “become who (you’re) supposed to be,” (37) according to his sister.

Schmidt draws nearly every one of Holling’s interactions with a colorful cast of characters humorously, at times pushing the reader to laugh out loud, as he launches and sustains Holling’s journey to become more mature, to develop a deeper understanding of himself and others. In the beginning of the novel, Holling is raw, with his reading consisting of adventure stories he’s read and reread. When times get difficult, he imagines himself as a character from Treasure Island, doing something heroic.

Times quickly get difficult, as reflected in the setting and characterization. Camilo Junior High School is populated by 8th-grade penitentiary-bound thugs, led by Doug Swieteck’s brother, who always seem to find ways to terrorize Holling and the other 7th graders through plumes of cigarette smoke. Their home is the bathroom, while Mr. Guareschi, the principal, who seems to want to be “the dictator of a small country” (19) lords over the rest of the school. All of the textbooks in use at Camilo include “…and You” in their titles (Mathematics and You, English and You), a jab at how schools attempt to make their curricula relevant. Finally, Holling’s friends, Doug, Danny, Meryl Lee and Mai Thi, work with him and against him, depending on the situation.

Outside of school, Holling has to deal with his father, whose ambition is to become an important businessman in their town. He sees architecture as a “blood sport” and wants to ensure Holling doesn’t alienate any possible adult clients. Holling’s mother is a closet cigarette smoker who does not contradict the father, and his sister, Heather, whose name is not divulged until the month of May at the end of the story, is protesting the war in Vietnam from the safety of her suburban house. Before he sees her as a person, she is the enemy who “hates his guts” as much as Mrs. Baker does.

With the school and his family's Perfect House as backdrops for Holling, he is able to embark on his personal journey to gain self-awareness. He and Mrs. Baker study Shakespeare, and he learns some truths about life through his characters and also some insults he is able to use with his family and other nemeses. Schmidt does not stint on the humor, as evidenced in the recurrence of Sycorax and Caliban, the cream puff incidents, Mr. Guareschi’s peculiarities, and Mrs. Sidman’s heroic actions (after her earlier forced sabbatical).

He also does not stint on more serious events that contribute to the self-awareness of Holling and his friends. Boyhood idols like Mickey Mantle fall the hard way, Vietnam intrudes, and Holling must deal with his single-minded father. Mai Thi, a Vietnamese refugee resettled in town, is quiet in class and knows little English (enough, though, in lighter moments, to join her classmates in threatening Holling). When the war affects those at school personally, she becomes a target and also a person who subtly helps Holling and others to understand humanity and forgiveness, even if it takes time, empathy or a well-placed punch. Finally, Holling has to defy his smug father and the 8th grade members of the cross country team and act according to his heart to become a better human, a more rounded character.

Throughout all of this is Mrs. Baker, “that dame” according to Joe Pepitone, who becomes a more sympathetic character (to a maturing Holling) as the year progresses, even if she seems to leave her classroom only rarely. Using Shakespeare, she steers Holling through the difficult year of growing up, a year replete with “laugh-out-loud moments that leaven the many poignant ones as Schmidt explores many important themes, not the least of which is what makes a person a hero” (Shoemaker). By the end of this excellent novel, younger readers will understand the need to think for themselves and will probably be secretly hoping a Mrs. Baker will ask them to read The Tempest.


Reference List
Shoemaker, Joel. 2007. Review of Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. School Library Journal 53(7): 110. Library, Information Science & Technology (LISTA) database through TWU Library. Accessed 16 November 2011.

HIGHLY—AND ENTHUSIASTICALLY—RECOMMENDED (Grades 7 & up)

Review Excerpts
Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms. (Kirkus Reviews)

Unlike most Vietnam stories, this one ends happily, as Schmidt rewards the good guys with victories that, if not entirely true to the period, deeply satisfy. (Publishers Weekly, April 16, 2007)

Holling's unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open. (Booklist, 2007)

Awards & Recognition
American Library Association Notable Book for Children
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
Newbery Honor Book, 2008

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