Holling Hoodhood, the unlikely hero in Gary D. Schmidt's fiction work "The Wednesday Wars", wrapped himself around my heart and still hasn't let go. In Schmidt's Newbery Honor work, the year is 1967. The Vietnam conflict rages too close to home, the Soviet Union's atomic bomb threat looms like an ominous shadow, and seventh-grader Holling is stuck with a militant teacher each Wednesday afternoon. For the entire school year.

Mrs. Baker, the enigmatic teacher who carries her own burdens, eventually wins over the heart and trust of her impressionable young charge as she immerses him in Shakespeare's classics. Her school year, however, is peppered with hilarious escapades thanks to Holling's propensity to find trouble despite his compliant nature. What follows is a tale of pure wonder, complete with rampant chalk dust, rats on the loose, camping in the Catskill mountains, yellow tights, brutal track practices, and an abiding love in the midst of outrageous dysfunction.

Schmidt's brilliance as a story-teller lies in his phenomenal ability to capture the humor, irony and vulnerability of life from a junior high school boy's perspective. This author doesn't shy away from tough topics: racism, war, the agony of being ignored and rejected, the search for God, bomb threats and the "death" of childhood heroes. In fact, Schmidt faces these themes head on, but does so with such a dose of innocence and levity that at times I wept with the story's raw depth and other times found myself laughing until I cried.

Two threads in this book particularly won my heart. The first was Holling's ambivalent relationship with his older sister. With a tender subtly, Schmidt weaves an incredible metamorphosis into the Hoodhood sibling duo. I also adored Schmidt's portrayal of this sweet boy's relationship with God, and how even confused Holling Hoodhood kept searching. Wound throughout his day-to-day experiences is the ever-present fact that he is "cursed" with a Presbyterian family. Most of his classmates, however, are "relieved" of Wednesday's drudgery with Mrs. Baker in exchange for Catholic catechism or Hebrew lessons in preparation for their bar mitzvahs.

I knew the book was a true winner when my 65-year-old father picked it up on Christmas Day and couldn't put it down. "The Wednesday Wars" is ageless. Teenagers and young adults will be drawn into the never-ending fun of Holling's adventures, mishaps, and first love. Everyone born before 1975 will remember those tumultuous times during the era of wailing protestors when the nightly news was delivered by Walter Kronkite. And every reader will identify with Holling Hoodhood's search for love, meaning, and God in the middle of it all.

Really cute book. It was nice to read a book that is just someone writing a good story not trying to save or change the world. It is about a seventh grader who believes his teacher hates him. It is so funny because that is really how 12 year olds are they believe everyone is against them and that nothing is working out for them. It is just fun to get back into the mentality of being in middle school again and how they act. Makes me want to be a kid again! btw pg 240 I love the description on divorce or how divorce happens, but you have to read the previous pages to understand what he means.

I'm a 51 year old woman and I think this is one of the best books I've ever read. Thats saying alot! I'm buying it for my dad for Father's Day.