Wednesday Wars is a concerning age historic fiction story about a seventh grader called Holling Hoodhood. Holling is the just Presbyterian trainee at his school, and he is the only trainee left there on Wednesday afternoons. He has a father who is never actually there for him, and I think that plays a big part to the story and how everything plays out. Holling begins the year believing that his instructor hates him, but as the year goes on they form an excellent teacher/student relationship.
I think this is a fantastic book because of the powerful father/son issue, the war issues facing them, and the concerns Holling faces throughout the book based upon his faith. The father/son issues in this book are very powerful.
They are a lot of times when Holling requires or wants his daddy. Often he needs his attention, sometimes he requires a ride, and sometimes he simply required his support. While in the end Mrs.
Baker did not wind up hating Holling, his father was to interested in organisation to even take a 2nd to appreciate his child. Holling had an extremely fascinating youth with being the only Presbyterian in his class. The year before he had 2 buddies who were also, but they moved away. That left Holling being the only trainee left in Mrs. Baker’s class on Wednesday afternoons. He believed that she hated him for being left there, but as time went on they formed an excellent relationship. They invest their Wednesdays studying Shakespeare.
They check out a brand-new play monthly. After the cream puff event, the Shakespeare settled for Holling. Holling sort of had problem with friends throughout the whole book to me. While he had some, it appeared there were unwritten specifications on the friendships. For example, when the kids in the class found out of Holling getting a cream puff, they all said that he owed them one. So he conserved, and was still short on money. However, the baker needed somebody who knew Shakespeare, and Holling traded remaining in the play for cream puffs for the class. Before he was given the cream puff, a handful of the other students threatened him en route out with promises of death, doing number 408, and understanding where he lived.
The war also played a big part in this particular story. For starters you had Mrs. Baker’s MIA husband. Then you had Hollings sister, Heather, who was antiwar and very much a flower power child. This book gives many insights to what the sixties were like. A very moving war inspired part was when Holling notices that Mrs. Baker is staring at the news just hoping to get a tiny glimpse of her lost husband. There is a lot if heartache going through this scene and it very much shows us why she starts out mean like when the book begins. Mai Thi is a very interesting character. I find it wonderful how it was written where she is accepted inside the school by teachers and students, yet she is an easy target to anyone else in the town that may have lost someone in the war.
Mai Thi is a Vietnamese student, and is there during the Vietnam War. While she has a small incident with the lunch lady, whose husband was killed, they make up and become very close. One more great touch that I must write about is how the author included some very important moment from the sixties, but he did it in an unbiased way. He talked about the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, the Vietnam War, and President Johnson’s decision not to return back to office. While I was not alive in the sixties, I am sure all of those had a very big impact on the world then. Even now they are huge events that we learn about.
Gary Schmidt did an excellent job of giving us, and the youth, knowledge about the sixties along with the comical situations Holling finds himself in. To wrap up I am going to say that this was one heck of a book. I, for one, HATE history. However, this book would make a great literature/history book. It could tie into both classes in either late middle school or high school and be great.
I think the children would enjoy reading the funny ways Holling gets himself into trouble without trying, and they can also soak up some history while they do that. Gary Schmidt has a wonderful writing style, and makes an excellent plot, sequence of events, theme, setting, and characters. While there were many characters to keep track of, the story would not have been the same without a single one! Thank you for this assignment.
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