When teachers or former students and their parents ask if I miss teaching, my answer often disappoints them. After twenty-five years of rigid schedules, grading, report cards, school politics, recess duty, teacher evaluations, curriculum writing, and inhaling every virus trapped in stale, classroom air, it was time for a new adventure.
But, there are a few things I miss – creating a community of trust in the classroom, being allowed into a nine-year-old’s world, and reassuring parents of a child’s worth and ability. I also miss staying abreast of developments in the rich world of children and young literature. That’s hard to do without the recommendations of a classroom full of kids and the school librarian to point me to the best and brightest new writing each year.
Once the first draft of my new book was complete, the itch to read kid and young adult lit began. But I didn’t know where to start until my friend Katie Wetherbee of Key Ministries suggested The Wednesday Wars.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “You have to read it,” she said. So I did. And she was right.
The book is a gem, which is no surprise to those who follow it’s author, Gary Schmidt. He’s written three other books, Anson’s Way, Straw Into Gold, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, a Newberry Honor Book. After reading The Wednesday Wars, they’re all on my must read list.
Why? Because Schmidt wove a rich tapestry from the staples of middle childhood – friendship, rejection, school, baseball, cynical older sisters, teachers, parents, the realizations that adults are frail humans and that all issues are not black and white – and the unexpected elements of Shakespeare, pet rats, cream puffs, cross country running, and architecture. He deftly fit unlikely components together, thanks to generous amounts of humor and a realistic 1967 story world, complete with an appearance by Mickey Mantle and news reports about Viet Nam, the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.
Revealing more about the plot would ruin the story for those of you who haven’t read it. Instead, meet two of the main characters. The first is seventh grade nerd, Holling Hoodhood. With a name like that, could he not be a nerd? The second is Mrs. Baker, a precise and demanding teacher. She is also Holling’s nemesis in his Wednesday afternoon wars.
For fear of spoiling the fun and the poignancy of The Wednesday Wars, I won’t say anymore. Except for this. Thank you, Katie Wetherbee, for recommending The Wednesday Wars.
