The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Holling Hoodhood starts out seventh grade thinking his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. He is the only Presbyterian in the classroom and he feels like he is being singled out for this reason. He is stuck in the classroom on Wednesday afternoons doing meaningless chores, like cleaning erasers and wiping down blackboards. Mrs. Baker has him start reading Shakespeare, "The Tempest", and he actually becomes pretty interested in it. But he still thinks Mrs. Barker is out to get him. 

From the first day of school Holling thought Mrs. Baker was trying to punish him and resented him. He assumed there was going to be a year-long war between the two of them. He often seems paranoid about her motives and her reasoning for doing things and assumes she is trying to hurt him. I don't understand Holling's approach or behavior towards Mrs. Baker. I think he may feel stuck in the situation and as if he cannot let his family down because Mrs. Baker's family business may hire Holling's fathers architect firm for an expensive job.

Besides his paranoia about Mrs. Barker, he seems to act like a normal seventh grader. He has embarrassing moments in school like when posters go up with pictures of him in tights. He also has a hard time getting along with people at school and siblings. He is also influenced by world and pop-culture events. In this time it was the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Hippie culture and religion. I think this book talks a lot about all of these different aspects and it would be a good way to connect it with a class discussion. As a class we could come up with world events that may influence us today. Also, we could discuss how we might feel or act if we were in Holling's place, stuck, alone in the classroom every Wednesday afternoon while the rest of the class was somewhere else. Would students feel the same resentment and paranoia as Holling?

Personally, I have enjoyed the book. It has not been as engaging or interesting to me as some of our past texts such as Hatchet or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. However, I thought it was relatable to middle school students and it can spark good, thought-provoking, class discussions.