5. The Wednesday Wars
I think every child, at one point or another, feels victimized by a teacher's attention. It's sort of a rite of passage in terms of American education. Gary Schmidt, however, raises this common experience to an art form. Holling Hoodhood is the lone Protestant in his class in 1960's Long Island. Every Wednesday, half of his class goes to catechism and the other half tromps off to Hebrew School. Being neither Catholic nor Jewish, Holling has to stay at school for the full day with Mrs. Baker, the teacher who hates his guts. His family is not sympathetic. His sister says that if his teacher hates his guts, maybe he should get some. His father worries that upsetting Mrs. Baker, the sister-in-law of the sporting goods store owner would adversely affect his architectural career. His mother seems generically indifferent. Worse than the idea of spending an afternoon with his least favorite teacher is what Mrs. Baker makes him
do. She hands over the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and assigns him to read
The Merchant of Venice. She disapproves of the fact that the only thing Holling learns from
The Tempest is the full range of Shakespearean insults. In February, when his romance with a classmate goes wrong, she endures his bitter diatribe about
Romeo and Juliet. She allows him to re-write the paper when he gets some perspective. I mentioned in the last recommendation that I adore captivating characters. This book is rife with them. Holling's sister is my favorite, since we do not know her name until a specific point in the book and it isn't until that point that we realize we've never heard her name before. She is the generic annoying older sister until a specific moment. There's Doug Swieteck's brother, the local delinquent whose name we won't know until three-quarters of the way through the sequel to this book. We see the VietNam War through the eyes of students who know Mrs. Baker's husband to be stationed over there and who welcome Mai Thai to their class as a refugee. As historical fiction, this is exquisitely written. Holling's father is constantly complaining about how many thousands the Yankees are paying one pitcher. Holling's sister works on the campaign for Bobby Kennedy. The Civil Rights movement is a far-off thing, brought to light only in the context of racism against Mai Thai. This movie would require extraordinary casting, since Holling does a stint in Shakespearean theater himself and has histrionics worthy of Nick Bottom the rest of the time. Mrs. Baker would be even tougher to cast. I will not spoil much more, but there are few children's books that make me cry. This one tops that list with three scenes that make me bawl every single time that I read the book. And as a Red Sox fan, it says a lot that one of them involves the New York Yankees.