“Gary D. Schmidt has written a novel that is at turns comic and compelling, down-to-earth and over the top. In The Wednesday Wars, he offers an unforgettable anti-hero in Holling Hoodhood, a kid from the suburbs who embraces his destiny in spite of himself.” – from the 2007 book jacket

In the school year of 1967-1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Holling Hoodhood is a baseball-loving seventh grader at Camillo Junior High who has good friends, a girl he likes, and a teacher who hates his guts. Life is pretty tough all around, and yet not so bad at all. As the war in Vietnam heats up, the anti-war and civil rights movements in America rage on, life at Camilo Junior High is as normal as anything in the 1960s ever was. 

“So on Wednesday afternoon you attend neither Hebrew School nor Catechism.”

I nodded. 

“You are here with me.”

“I guess,” I said.

Mrs. Baker looked hard at me. I think she rolled her eyes. “Since the mutilation of ‘guess’ into an intransitive verb is a crime against the language, perhaps you might wish a full sentence to avoid prosecution – something such as, ‘I guess that Wednesday afternoons will be busy after all.”

That’s when I knew that she hated me. This look came over her face like the sun had winked out and was not going to shine again until next June.

Holling Hoodhood, the lone Presbyterian in his class, seemed destined to ruin Mrs. Baker’s year because he went neither to St. Aldebert’s for Catechism class nor to Temple Beth-El for Hebrew school. And with that, the stage was set. A seventh-grade English teacher, accustomed to having her Wednesday afternoons to herself, was saddled with one moody pupil in need of supervision and instruction. 

After a few Wednesdays of chalkboard eraser cleaning, Mrs. Baker finds a better way to torture her pupil – William Shakespeare. Because, you know, she hates Holling’s guts and wants to kill him. 

“Toads, beetles, bats, lights on you!” – The Tempest

Mrs. Baker, as it turns out, doesn’t hate Holling’s guts, and is, in fact, one of his most authentic advocates by the end of the year. What starts as an experiment becomes something powerful as she and Holling read and discuss the works of William Shakespeare together on those awkward Wednesday afternoons. It is clear that Gary D. Schmidt himself loves Shakespeare, and he deftly weaves the themes, ideas, and situations of Shakespeare’s plays into the lives of the students, faculty, and families of Camillo Junior High. 

This book is brilliant and hilarious while also being poignant and tender. 

This story is described as a young adult historical fiction novel. I think that is accurate. The target audience for this well-crafted, 264-page story seems to be middle and high school students. Holling and his peers seem older than seventh grade to me, but there is nothing too mature or inappropriate for middle school readers. The story is not merely set in the early 1960s, but the war in Vietnam, the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, Atomic Bomb Awareness, and baseball with the Yankees are all real and vibrant aspects of the story. As a mama, I find that the 1960s is a difficult period of time to teach to my children. I would say that this exciting and thoughtful story has been very helpful in introducing that tumultuous time to my children. 

Over the course of the school year, Mrs. Baker’s husband is lost in the jungles of Khe Sanh, Holling’s flower child sister decides to run away to California in a yellow VW bug, Holling’s selfish and egotistical father is named Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, Vietnamese refugee Mai Thi is harassed and then adopted, and Holling stars in the community theater production of The Tempest as Ariel. Holling is not blessed with great parents, and more often than not, they are a foil to his happiness. While this story stays innocent and avoids the really hard questions, it is just tough enough to make Holling believable and the story complex and interesting. 

Parents may wish to know what the dust jacket means by “anti-hero.” Holling is not a bad kid. In fact, he is one worth rooting for. But, he is a boyish boy and very much like a seventh grader. There is no overwhelmingly virtuous hero here. Just a kid. Being a kid. In tough times with not-so-great parents. But, blessed with good friends and a healthy relationship with his teacher, he grows into an admirable leader and a good example for our kids. 

Parents may also wish to know that there is just a tiny bit of potty humor on a camping trip, and a pretty chaste seventh-grade boyfriend-girlfriend situation. There is nothing terribly scary in this book. And while the war is raging, it doesn’t directly impact the kids in the story. 

This book is one that I had planned to use as a tween/teen book club before Covid, and one that I anticipate using this year when my book clubs restart. 

Shakespeare’s Plays Studied by Holling:

• The Merchant of Venice
• The Tempest
• Macbeth
• Romeo and Juliet
• Julius Caesar
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Hamlet

Finally, readers may wish to know that there are two “sequels” to this story. I have read Okay For Now, and I have not read Just Like That. Using a similar format to this brilliant book, in Okay For Now Holling’s friend Doug Swieteck has moved to a new town and is befriended by a John James Audubon-loving librarian. I will do a careful review of this story as themes of domestic violence and the hardships of war are very much center-stage. Despite the harsh setting and difficult characters, it is a very creative and compelling read. Just Like That moves us back to Camillo Junior High in the wake of a tragic car accident that killed one of our favorite characters. 

You can purchase this book in print or audio book here.