The Wednesday Wars

Holling Hoodhood lives a solid middle-class life in the suburbs, in the sixties. Holling can't act for fear of endangering his father's business. He lives with his sister and parents in the Perfect House, an untouchable, do not disturb life. Holling tries to live a life where he, like the house, like his parents, like his father's business, is not disturbed, but it is not to be. Instead, his teacher, his enemy teacher, sets him a daunting task: to read and think about Shakespeare each Wednesday afternoon. The plays of Shakespeare and the thoughts the plays engender carry over into the trials of Holling's life, shaping him, helping him cope, soothing him in the solace provided by seeing others suffer as he does. Perhaps Holling too easily understands Shakespeare, but this is a story and it is the story we who love books want for all our students.