Lindsey's Library

Critique

At first, it’s almost difficult to get past Holling’s immature attitude regarding his teacher and his life. However, it’s exactly that initial character flaw that makes the process of the book so endearing. Divided by month rather than chapter, the story simply seems to move along from small adventure to small adventure in a way that represents real life accurately. 

The other subplots—the Vietnam War and their school taking in a Vietnam refugee, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the anti-war and Civil Rights movements and sentiments represented by Holling’s older sister, the traditional views of life represented through his father, Shakespeare’s themes emerging throughout the story, Mrs. Baker’s relation to the war and Holling’s heroes, the New York Yankees, and Holling’s own process of courage and sacrifice—are what make this book more than simply a novel about a kid who reads some Shakespeare. 

Much like Sophie’s World in which the world around her changes as she learns of the various philosophies, The Wednesday Wars contextualizes the messages of Shakespeare in a modern context, and shows that sometimes miracles do happen and sometimes they don’t, but more than anything, if the world were filled with the courageous and the loving, it would change drastically.