The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt is told from the perspective of a seventh-grade boy named Holling Hoodhood. Holling is rather dramatic, as noted in the opening line of the novel: Of all the...

There are several examples of personification in The Wednesday Wars. In these examples, the author makes something that isn't human seem human and carry out human activities. For example, on...

This is an interesting question, because, due to the changes that the character of Holling Hoodhood goes through in the course of the narrative, the adjectives that would best describe him change...

Holling Hoodhood wins his race in the cross country meet the exact same way that most great runners win. Holling is blessed with a mixture of natural talent, hard work and determination, and good...

Holling has several episodes with the cream puffs. The first time, he is threatened with death (or at least harm) by some of his classmates, including Meryl Lee, because Mrs. Baker gives him a...

In Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, one reason why Holling loves The Tempest so much, which he reads during the month of November, is because of the elements of the plot. As Holling explains, The...

I don't think that there is a single instance where Holling was defeated and then used that defeat to propel himself to higher greatness. The Wednesday Wars is not a superhero book. Holling is...

The main conflict in the book Wednesday Wars is Holling Hoodhood's struggle to grow up. In order to do this, Holling must learn to view things from perspectives other than his own, and, most...

Holling went to the baseball game with Mrs. Baker and Danny in April, on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. Holling had gotten tickets for the special event way back in December. After he had...

Mrs. Baker is a middle school teacher who appears strict at first. For example, she corrects Holling Hoodhood's grammar and forces him to read Shakespeare. She clearly has high standards and...

The thing Holling Hoodhood wants most in life is to have a chance to determine his own destiny. Holling's father is a controlling, insensitive man who has decided that Holling will follow in his...

The words in The Tempest that appeal most to Holling are the curses that the character Caliban utters. Holling likes them because they're the most original, interesting-sounding cuss words he's...

In the last chapter, June, Holling's class plans to spend two days camping in the Catskill Mountains in order to celebrate the end of the school year. Holling notes that his teacher is smiling a...

Essentially, Mrs. Baker gives Mai Thi her cup of hot chocolate because she notices that Mrs. Bigio did not offer the student one. When Doug Swieteck tries to take two cups, Mrs. Bigio presses her...

In Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, we are not told anything about Holling's physical traits, but we are told a great deal about his character traits. One thing we learn is that, as the story...

The reason for why Holling's sister left for California might change depending on which character that you ask. If you were to ask Holling or Mr. Hoodhood, they would tell you that Heather left...

The Hoodhood home is "like every other house on the block, except neater." Holling's father is very concerned about appearances, and has the dwelling painted "perfectly white every other year." The...

With February comes Valentine's Day, and this is probably the first event that signifies to readers that Holling's and Meryl Lee's feelings for each other are changing. Holling is reading Romeo and...

The big conflict which hovers in the background of The Wednesday Wars is the Vietnam war, in which Holling's teacher, Mrs. Baker's husband, has been sent to fight. This is an ongoing source of...

Within the first days of school in the opening chapter of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, Mr. Guareschi, the school principal, announces over the school's public address system that Lieutenant...

This event occurs during the chapter titled "January," which is the fifth chapter in the book. A large part of the chapter revolves around Holling dealing with the embarrassment of a photo in the...

While Holling is studying The Tempest in Mrs. Baker's room, Mrs. Bigio comes in and shares with Mrs. Baker that her husband (Mrs. Bigio's husband) has been killed in Vietnam. The story is set in...

The general location setting of the books is New York. Holling never actually says that his school is in New York. It's up to the reader to figure it out, but a reader can get that information...

In Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, Holling's life is affected the most by the Vietnam War the moment he learns Mrs. Baker's husband has been declared missing in action. Up to that point, no one...

The novel The Wednesday Wars is organized into months, spanning the whole of Holling's academic year from September to June. In October, for the sake of his father's job, Holling behaves in a...

During the middle of yet another tedious bomb drill one Wednesday afternoon, Mrs. Baker decides to take things into her own hands. She tells Holling that they will leave the classroom to survey...

You'd think that after his somewhat deflating experience with the legendary Mickey Mantle, Holling would be put off baseball for good. But he's as still as much of a Yankees fan as he ever was....

Holling's introduction to Shakespeare comes right after the Great Chalk Dust Cream Puff Caper, in other words, right after Holling's inadvertent destruction of three trays of newly baked cream...

Each chapter in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars is a month of Holling Hoodhood's seventh-grade year at Camillo Junior High. Quite a few things happen in Holling's world in this chapter. April, of...

The main lesson in The Wednesday Wars is that people are more complex than they first appear and that in order to get to know someone, you must move beyond superficiality. Holling Hoodhood, for...

By the time Robert (Bobby) Kennedy dies from a bullet wound in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, both Holling and Heather have been deeply affected by the Vietnam War. Bobby Kennedy campaigned for...

Holling had to go to the emergency room to have his butt x-rayed. Toward the end of the January chapter, Holling has to walk home after a very long day at school. The weather has been really...

One way in which Holling's father lets him down in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars concerns breaking his promise to take Holling to the Yankee's baseball game on Opening Day. In fact, he...

Holling Hoodhood is the seventh-grade protagonist of The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt, and he has been spending his Wednesday afternoons reading Shakespeare's plays, including The Tempest, with...

Meryl Lee, in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, is a truly caring person. Holling believes that Meryl Lee has been in love with him since the third grade. Regardless of the truth of this...

I don't think Mrs. Baker is necessarily "anti-holiday;" it is just that this year, the holidays, to her, serve as such a strong reminder that her husband is away fighting a war. The holidays are...

Holling's sister considers herself a flower child because she believes in peace and is against violence of any sort. For example, Heather is against the Vietnam War. In the novel, she tells her...

Initially, Holling thinks that Mrs. Baker hates his guts. The feeling appears to be mutual. The special one-to-one sessions he is forced to have with her are no such thing. To Holling, they're a...

Much to his surprise, Holling starts to become a big Shakespeare fan, and soon starts quoting out loud from his favorite plays. He also uncovers a good deal of practical wisdom and more than a few...

The Wednesday Wars centers on Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader who initially believes his teacher Mrs. Baker hates him and is out to get him. He also believes other things that prove not to be...

The Wednesday Wars consists of multiple storylines that come together at the end of the book after the main character, Holling Hoodhood, has weathered personal upsets and tumultuous times. He grew...

Holling Hoodhood is just a seventh grader in The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt, and he is not expected to do particularly well in the tryouts for the junior high cross country team. He has been...

The answer to this question can be found in the November chapter. Holling needs to buy the class some cream puffs to make up for the ones that he accidentally tainted with chalk dust, which caused...

The Wednesday Wars is full of major events, and some will be more important to readers than others. I'll list seven events that I think are important to the overall story. Holling gets placed in...

A great deal of foreshadowing can be found in the chapter titled "February" of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars. Some moments in the story foreshadow future doom; others foreshadow the...

Junior high is a pivotal time for growing up and learning lessons, and Holling Hoodhood learns many lessons in The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. One thing Holling learns is that he has a right to...

Holling Hoodhood has to spend his Wednesday afternoons with Mrs. Baker, because he is not allowed to go to where the other students in his school have to go. Holling attends a school that is a...

Holling said that line during the month of January. He had just finished playing Ariel in a live Shakespeare production. Unfortunately for Holling, his costume was incredibly embarrassing to wear....

Holling first refers to his house as "perfect" in the first chapter, "September." According to his father, the house is perfectly in the middle of town. It's not on the north side with Jewish...

In the chapter titled "January" of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, Mr. Guareschi, the school principal, forces the kids to come to school and take the standardized achievement tests just after a...