The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

Readers.......


Would you be interested in performing a play for the seventh grade students at your school? You will be on the stage, reciting Shakespeare! Oh yeah.. you will be wearing yellow tights with white feathers on your backside.

Would you like to spend every Wednesday afternoon with your literature teacher? Just you and her reading and discussing Shakespeare?

How would you like to meet two of the most famous baseball players of your time? You could even play on the ball field with them after the game.

Want to take a camping trip with your classmates, your teacher and your principal? Would you agree even if you have to do all the dishes in the river?

Or.... How about getting chased by large rats, threatened by school bullies, missing the NY Yankees' opening game (first row seats), or losing your first girlfriend because your father is overtaking her father's business?
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These are just a few of the events that you will find Holling Hoodhood encountering in the book The Wednesday Wars.

The story takes place during the Vietnam War and along with the normal events of a middle school student, the reader encounters fears of losing family members, fears of the dropping of the atomic bomb, the sadness of political assassinations, and the challenge overcoming racism within a classroom.

The story left me laughing, crying and growling at different points throughout. Characters that I was fond of during the beginning of the book leave me angry at the end. The characters that were what I considered "bad" at the beginning show me that first impressions are not always the right ones. ( Give Mrs. Baker a chance!)

Have you read it? What do you think?