Read Smarter #2: Buy The Wednesday Wars Right Now.
As regular Radical readers know, I started a new Pete Caggia inspired series a few weeks back that I’m calling Read Smarter. The purpose of #readsmarter posts is simple: I want to recommend books to you that really ought to be on your classroom bookshelves.
Here’s why: Our goal isn’t just to teach kids HOW to read. Our goal is to teach kids to LOVE reading. And as Pete argues, teaching kids to love reading starts by getting the right book in front of the right kid at the right time.
So here’s a new book recommendation for you:
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt tells the story of Holling Hoodhood — a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High School who finds himself in dozens of madcap adventures over the course of 272 entertaining pages.
Whether he’s running from escaped classroom rats, surviving a slightly crazy school principal, asking a special girl out on a Valentine’s Day date, or starring in a community play while wearing yellow tights with white feathers on his butt, life is never boring for ol’ Holling — and that’s what makes this story so much fun to read.
Middle school readers are certain to see themselves in Hoodhood. He’s the perfect middle school character: Nervous and hopeful and wanting to grow up while wanting to stay young all at the same time. Those themes alone are bound to resonate with every kid in my sixth grade classroom.
On the surface, The Wednesday Wars feels a lot like James Patterson’s Middle School – The Worst Years of My Life or Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Whimpy Kid series.
But it digs deeper in a way that both Patterson and Kinney’s books don’t.
Throughout the story, Holling wrestles with a demanding father who doesn’t give his kids much room to make choices and who doesn’t respect the hopes and dreams of anyone in his family. That intensity eventually destroys Holling’s family — his sister runs away and his parents fall out of love. Kids who come from families that are struggling will appreciate those plot twists.
The Wednesday Wars is also set during the early 1970s — as America is being torn apart by the Vietnam War. One of Holling’s classmates is a refugee from Vietnam. Throughout the story, she is treated poorly by students and teachers alike even as Holling and his friends stand up for her. Those events can give middle grades readers the chance to think through their own choices when they see injustice in the world around them.
Long story short, pick up a copy of The Wednesday Wars and get it on your bookshelf. Then, recommend it to every middle school boy that you think needs to be pushed beyond Whimpy Kid books. It’s a winner.
#readsmarter
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Related Radical Reads:
Read Smarter #1: Developing Kids who WANT to Read Means Filling Your Bookshelf with the RIGHT Books.
A Simple Plan to Make My Love of Reading Transparent to My Students
This is Why I Teach: Real Men Read
Source: http://blog.williamferriter.com/2018/09/02/read-smarter-2-buy-the-wednesday-wars/