Why Did Mrs Baker Tell Holling They Would Be Reading the Lay Again
#37 The Wednesday Wars past Gary D. Schmidt (2007)
53 points
Don't know if this qualifies as a children's—it's kind of on the border between center grade and YA, but it's one of my favorite books of all time so I'1000 including it. There's so much going on, and Schmidt has the wonderful capacity to make the reader laugh out loud and weep—all on the aforementioned page. – Heather Christensen
Two words: cream puffs – Jessalynn Gale
The plot from my review reads, "Mrs. Baker hates Holling Hoodhood. There'south no two ways virtually information technology, as far as he can tell. From the minute he entered her classroom she had information technology in for him and he'south trying not to become paranoid. Now considering half the kids in his class are Jewish and half Cosmic, every Wed Holling (a Protestant through and through) is stuck alone with Mrs. Baker while the other kids get to Hebrew School or Catechism for the afternoon. And what has this evil genius dreamt up for our poor immature hero? Shakespeare. He has to read it and get tested on information technology regularly with the intention (Holling is sure) of boring him to decease. The thing is, Holling kind of gets to similar the stuff. Meanwhile, though, he has to bargain with wearing yellow tights butt-gracing feathers, avoiding killer rats and his older sister, and deciding what to do near Meryl Lee Kowalski, 'who has been in love with me since she first laid eyes on me in the third grade,' amidst other things. Ready during the school year of 1967-68 confronting a backdrop of Vietnam and political strife, Holling finds that figuring out who y'all are goes above and beyond what people want you lot to become."
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Information technology won a Newbery Honour in 2008, beaten past the fantastic Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz. A proficient year. Since that time Schmidt wrote the companion novel Okay for At present.
Prisoner of war said of it, "Unlike nigh Vietnam stories, this ane ends happily, as Schmidt rewards the proficient guys with victories that, if not entirely true to the period, deeply satisfy."
Said SLJ, "The tone may seem cloying at first and the plot occasionally goes over-the-meridian, but readers who stick with the story will be rewarded. They will capeesh Holling's gentle, caring ways and volition exist deplorable to have the volume stop."
Booklist liked it quite a bit maxim, "Holling'south unwavering, distinctive vocalism offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the correct help, learns to stretch across the limitations of his family unit, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open."
Horn Book went on with, "Schmidt rises in a higher place the novel's conventions to create memorable and conceivable characters."
Kirkus concluded with, "Schmidt has a style of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their ain terms."
And best of all was this section from Tanya Lee Stone'due south New York Times review, "However, while 'The Wednesday Wars' was 1 of my favorite books of the yr, it wasn't written for me. Sometimes books that speak to adults miss the mark for their intended audition. To see if the novel would resonate as deeply with a child, I gave it to an avid but discriminating ten-year-onetime reader. His laughter, followed by repeated outbursts of 'Listen to this!,' answered my question. Best of all, he asked if I had a re-create of 'The Tempest' he could borrow."
Now the cover seen at the top of this review was by no means the start of its kind. A slightly dissimilar jacket appeared when galleys were get-go sent out. Information technology looked like this:
The changes are, in a word, fascinating. Then at that place was the paperback version:
Anyone else out there mildly freaked out by how practiced the kids' book trailers are getting these days? I offer to the jury case A:
http://www.youtube.com/sentinel?v=fboMxuV4kjQ&feature=embed
To be fair, it has roughly 5 billion book trailers on YouTube. I just chose one of the best.
Filed under: Best Books, Top 100 Children's Novels (2012)
Source: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2012/05/30/top-100-childrens-novels-37-the-wednesday-wars-by-gary-d-schmidt/