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lauramcgaha 's review for:
The Wednesday Wars
by Gary D. Schmidt
This book was required reading for my rising 7th grader this summer, and after reading that the setting is 1967-68, I decided to read it as well. Definitely one of my better impromptu decisions. The story is of 7th grader Holling Hoodhood and the relationship he has with his teacher, Mrs. Baker -- who he is sure hates him. The development and growth of this relationship will make just about everyone want to be a teacher -- or, at the very least, remember the teacher that really connected with them individually.
That plot alone is worth the time, but Schmidt enriches the story further with elements of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Shakespeare, and even baseball, as a background to the tales of middle school angst and coming of age. The book has a Wonder Years feel to it, and I highly recommend it for 6th grade and up.
That plot alone is worth the time, but Schmidt enriches the story further with elements of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Shakespeare, and even baseball, as a background to the tales of middle school angst and coming of age. The book has a Wonder Years feel to it, and I highly recommend it for 6th grade and up.