the 101st Airborne Division to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. She betrays no hint of fear or worry in front of her students when her husband goes missing (he is later found).

Interestingly, the author does not mention Mrs. Baker's appearance or age, but it might be assumed that she is fairly young, as there is no mention of her having kids and her husband is serving in Vietnam. It might also be assumed, based on her personality, that she has a very neat, proper appearance.

In Gary Schmidt's novel, The Wednesday Wars, Mrs. Betty Baker is a woman who comes across as an amazing teacher—she has her drawbacks which make her human enough to be believable. Her trait is stepping up to a responsibility or difficulty she may not like, but making the best of it.

We see this trait in the way Mrs. Baker deals with Holling. While she ends up very much involved in Holling's life—supportive of him, seeing his good qualities and taking a real interest in his life...

Her extracurricular activities—taking him to Yankee Stadium and on an architectural tour—make her seem like a guardian angel.

...(characteristics that make her almost too good to be true), it wasn't always this way. Mrs. Baker is not a superhero, but simply a dedicated teacher. Early on, she does not warm up to Holling completely, and her "irritation" with him is obvious. Holling starts his story as follows:

Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun.
Me.

Mrs. Baker ascertains that Holling will be coming to her classroom on Wednesdays—because the Jewish and Catholic students attend Hebrew School or Catechism, and he does not.

"You are here with me."
"I guess," I said.
Mrs. Baker looked hard at me. I think she rolled her eyes.

However, things will eventually change for the better, probably most notably when they begin reading Shakespeare on Wednesdays.

While Mrs. Baker is doing her best in the classroom, she is plagued by her own person problems. In learning of these difficulties, we can find the real person behind the professional front she puts on for her students: her husband is fighting overseas in the Vietnam War which causes her a great deal of worry, especially when he is lost and missing in action. However, as noted before, she is someone who takes the difficulties placed in front of her, and does her best to move forward and make the best of it: carrying on with life.

In Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, at first, Mrs. Baker seems to resent the fact that Holling Hoodhood will be left alone in her class every Wednesday afternoon while all other seventh graders are either at Temple Beth-El, attending Hebrew School, or at Saint Adelberts, attending Catechism. She expresses her resentment so much that Holling reaches the conclusion she hates him and is even out to kill him or at least get him in some way. Yet, by the end of the novel, Mrs. Baker helps Holling in multiple ways; she helps him so much that she becomes a role model for him.

Mrs. Baker first expresses her resentment by suggesting to the principle she thinks Holling should retake sixth-grade math; she does so in an effort to get Holling out of her class on Wednesday afternoons. When that effort fails, she resorts to giving him menial chores to do such as cleaning the chalkboards, cleaning chalkboard erasers, carrying 12 trays of cream puffs up to her classroom one tray at a time, and cleaning her pet rats' cage. When some of those tasks end in disaster, Mrs. Baker begins reading Shakespeare with Holling, which Holling is sure, at first, is some sort of torture.

However, the more he reads Shakespeare, the more he learns, and the closer his relationship with Mrs. Baker grows. As their relationship grows, she begins protecting his interests. For example, when Mickey Mantle behaves offensively in a sporting goods store owned by the Bakers, she comes to the rescue. Mickey Mantle refuses to sign Holling's baseball because Holling is still dressed like a fairy after performing Ariel in The Tempest. Holling's friend Danny Hupfer jumps to Holling's defense by refusing to accept the ball Mickey Mantle had just signed for him. When Mrs. Baker hears about the incident, she gives the kids "three brand-new baseballs" and arranges for them to meet Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke, who sign their baseballs and give them tickets to the Yankees game on Opening Day ("December"). Later, she comes to Holling's rescue when his father neglects to take him to the game. She acts in other kind and encouraging ways as well by coaching Holling in cross-country running and by taking him on a tour of "points of local architectural interest" so that he might decide for himself whether or not he wants to be an architect like his father ("May").