Claire’s Letter Essay #12: The Wednesday Wars

I have just finished reading Gary Schmidt’s ‘The Wednesday Wars’, an average 264 page realistic fiction novel. I have never heard of this book before, but I really enjoyed reading it.

In this novel, Holling Hoodhood, an average 7th grade boy in the year of 1967, who lives with his mother, his father, and his sister Heather. Holling wants to get out of Mrs. Baker’s classroom, because she obviously has a plan to ruin his year at Mica High, I mean what other teacher would make you read Shakespeare out of school? But because of his father’s job, Holling can’t get on Mrs. Baker’s bad side. Mr. Hoodhood is an architect and it’s possible that the Baker Sporting Emporium will be giving them their next job.

The main character in this book, Holling, grew a lot when I was reading this. He really learned a lot throughout the book about sticking up for what he wants and that you can’t see the good in people if you don’t give them the chance.

I really liked how the author described all of the characters by how they acted. I also enjoyed that he chose to write the book in Holling’s perspective, but I also would’ve liked to see how Mrs. Baker was thinking in the book.

The following passage surprised me;

“So, Holling, what did you do that might make Mrs. Baker hate your guts, which will make other Baker family members hate the name of Hoodhood, which will lead to the Baker Sporting Emporium to choose another architect, which will kill the deal for Hoodhood and Associates, which will drive us into bankruptcy, which encourage several lending institutions around the state to send representatives to our front stoop holding papers that have lots of legal words on them-none of them good- and which sill mean that there will be no Hoodhood and Associates for you to take over when I’m ready to retire?”

That passage entirely explains Mr. Hoodhood and how he is very greedy and basically only cares about money and making sure that Holling is going to take in the family business.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would rate it a 9 out of 10 because this just isn’t my favorite theme but I think that Schmidt did a really good job in writing this book. I recommend this book to anyone that likes realistic fiction novels.

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2 thoughts on “Claire’s Letter Essay #12: The Wednesday Wars

  1. This book sounds interesting, Claire. I would like to read it at some point, soon. From the paragraph that you quoted from the book, I agree on Mr. Hoodhood only being interested in money and business. That explains alot about his character in this book, doesn’t it ? Overall, you did a good job in summarizing this book and thanks for the recommendation.

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