The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Genre: Historical Fiction
Themes: Coming of Age, Shakespeare, Middle School, War
Grade Level: 6-8
Curriculum Connections: English (Shakespeare), History (Vietnam War, Politics, 1960s)

Holling Hoodhood is the seventh grade's only Presbyterian so he doesn't leave school on Wednesday afternoons like his Jewish and Catholic classmates. He is the only student who remains in school. Mrs. Baker isn't thrilled to have one student, and she sets him to work on Shakespeare. He does learn to appreciate (and even enjoy!) his reading.

The book is set in 1967. The Vietnam War runs throughout. Holling's sister becomes a flower child, irritating her father. The assassination of Bobby Kennedy affects the whole family, as well as a local man's death in the war. One of Holling's classmates, a displaced Vietnamese girl living at an orphanage, receives unwanted attention because of the war. Holling also faces pressure from his career focused father to take over the family business, a job he doesn't necessarily want.

Classroom Suggestions:

1. This book would be a great supplement to a unit on the 1960's. Many important issues of the times are presented including Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Vietnam, President Johnson, Walter Cronkite and the media's coverage of the war, and attitudes of people at home toward the war.