Today, I'm reviewing The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.
Series: No idea what the series is called, but there's a second book!
Age group: 10 - 12
Page count: 272 pages
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Summary from Amazon:
Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.
Why I liked this book:
- You can really relate to the main character. Holling has problems just like us. His family has problems, school isn't going well, and to top it off, there's a war.
- Holling has to read Shakespeare for Mrs. Baker. The way it's covered in the book is just awesome. It makes Shakespeare sound cool, and it's astounding to see how it can be related in everyday life.
- The things that happen in this book are told so wonderfully and keep up, there's never a boring part. You could just open it at any random page, and you could read on without worrying. There are not many books you can do that with.
I give this book a 9/10 or 0.9 or 9.0/10.0 or fraction nine on top, ten on the bottom! That is probably one of the best you're going to get.
Author bio:
Taken from his website at:
http://www.hmhbooks.com/schmidt/
Thank you!
- Vi