Book Review #9 - The Wednesday Wars

I am so glad I picked this up on a whim at the library. Actually, I picked up Gary Schmidt's Okay For Now on a whim and when I saw that he had a Newberry Winner called The Wednesday Wars and the blurbs on the back said it was just as good as his award winning The Wednesday Wars, I went back and got that book instead.

It is adorable and funny and tender and insightful and historic and frustrating and well written! I have only ever read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and it just about kicked my tail (I find the movie adaptations easier on my brain) and my only eyebrow raise is how easily a seventh grader seemed to digest and comprehend that old English style. Regardless, his enjoyment of Shakespeare and his subsequent application and interpretation of his famous plays exposed the very motivation and connection I feel with reading: that art imitates life, or vice versa, and we can gleam the human experience through any generation with books. I can only imagine how delightful a well-versed Shakespeare love would find this book.

It's more than the smart use of Shakespeare, however, that make this so much fun to read. Holling Hoodhood's relationships with his friends, he teachers, his family, as well as his embarrassments and triumphs make this a compelling read. As a warning, it is juvenile literature. The shenanigans and conflict feel young, even younger than a current-day seventh grade boy might experience, because it is set in 1968 when schools were run differently and polite society had a much different emphasis. However, I actually found that innocence and conservativeness a much more effective story telling method than the crassness and shocking nature of todays young adult literature. Whether a seventh grader finds is as relevant will soon be discovered as I've already passed it on to my own almost thirteen year old son. I can't wait for him to read it!


I heartily recommend this book to all readers of any age. It was really, really good.