Young Adult Book Fun

Title: The Wednesday Wars

Author: Gary D Schmidt

Publishing: Clarion Books (May 21, 2007)

ISBN: 978-0618724833

Grade Level: 6-9

Awards: 2008 Newbery Award

Summary: Young Holling Hoodhood lives in a perfect house on a perfect street, but everything is not perfect in Long Island because he’s the only Presbyterian in a town of Catholics or Jews and thus the only one left with Mrs. Baker on Wednesdays while everyone else is either at Hebrew School or Catechism. It’s just too bad she’s got a thing for Shakespeare and it’s too bad that he starts to like him too.

Comments: The Wednesday Wars are and English teachers dream come true (it should be seeing as how Schmidt is a professor of English). It, at once, combines the love of Shakespeare, grammar and vocabulary into a story filled with humor, humiliation and good old fashioned middle school rivalries.

With a historical backdrop that flavors the tale without overpowering it, Schmidt is able to create a glimpse of what it might have been like to be a 7th grader in an idealized Long Island in the 1960’s.

While the story does seem fantastical at times it is fun and the classroom applications are seemingly endless. It would be hard to find a reader that this book would not be appropriate for.

Georgia Performance Standards:

ELA7RC1 The student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines. The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas.

ELA8RC1 The student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines. The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas.

ELA9RC1 The student reads a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books or book equivalents (approximately 1,000,000 words) per year from a variety of subject disciplines. The student reads both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse, including technical texts related to various subject areas.

Extensions:

• Have students create a timeline of events during Hollings 7th grade year.
• Have students discuss the characterizatin of Holling’s Dad. Is he a sympathetic character or a villain? Is he strong or afraid? What makes him so?
• Have students read portions of Romeo and Juliet. Is Hollings’ view of Romeo justified?