Teacher as a Reader #1

I’m reading The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. The book follows a young boy living in what he calls “the perfect house.” His house lies exactly in the middle of the Jewish community and the Presbyterian community. Every Wednesday, half of the students at Camillo Junior High attend Hebrew school and the other half attends catechism at the Presbyterian Church. Holling Hoodhood however, does not and because of this, every Wednesday, Holling gets to spend the afternoon with Mrs. Baker. According the Holling, Mr. Baker hates him with a passion and because of that, she makes him read Shakespeare after school each Wednesday.

The book took a bit to get into. It was a slow start, setting up why Holling had to stay after school and why he hated staying after with Mrs. Baker. However, once the story really begins, the book picks up and I really am enjoying reading it. I can see why a student in elementary school or middle school might be able to relate to the book and as a result, really enjoy it! Everyone has had a teacher that they swear up and down HATES them and is always out to get them in everything they do. For me, it was my English teacher in middle school with diagramming sentences – and if I had to stay after school with her every Wednesday, I would dread going to school!! In addition to being easily relatable to the students, the language is very simple. Even the words that would be difficult for a younger reader, you would still be able to figure them out.

In high school, every year in English, we read a Shakespeare play… and I hated them all. Holling is being forced to read a variety of Shakespeare plays which he dreaded at the beginning. How can Shakespeare be fun?? As he begins to read it, it turned out that I had to read it again. There are passages in the book from the various plays that he is currently reading, and Holling even begins to talk like a Shakespeare play. It’s been some what difficult to get through reading the actual quotes from the plays, but once Holling started speaking it in his conversations with the other students and in his head, the book became somewhat difficult to follow.

Right now I’m about half way through the book and it just gets a little bit better with each chapter so hopefully it will continue to just get better!!