Wendnesday Wars

                                                  Heather's Homecoming

     In the chapter May, Heather had left with Chit in his yellow bug car, to go to Rocky Mountains with him. When she had left, her whole family felt really emotional, but her dad was emotional in a bad way. Holling had thought that the house felt a bit empty without her. One night, Heather called and spoke to Holling, but for most of the time they were on the phone, they both were just crying. Heather told Holling that she only had $4.00 with her when she needed $44.55 to get back to New York City, and from that call, Heather was alone and Chit left her. Holling was so kind and had sent $52.00 for Heather to come back home. Once Heather got back to the bus station near her home, Holling asked his dad if he could go pick up Heather and he refused to. Then his dad was kidding and told Holling for him to drive and pick her up, so he did. For Holling and Heather's reunion, they were so kind to each other, holing each others hands and having dinner together.

                                                                                                From: Tif.  H

Heather's Homecoming

          This chapter was honestly my favourite, in the beginning of the chapter it was okay but as it went along it got really interesting, this is the type of book that you never want to put down, a real page turner!

            This week we read chapter May:

In this chapter Heather got into a big fight with her dad, after her dad insisted she help him with his work. They also fought over if Heather was going to Columbia University. Heather was destined and determined to go Columbia University, but her dad had other plans for her. Meanwhile Heather had been seeing a boy named chit, Chit would often go to Heather's house, they would talk and laugh, then go for a ride in Chit's little yellow bug car with flowers around the side. Eventually after all this drama with her dad, Heather had enough her and chit drove off to Rocky Mountain without anyone knowing, she did leave a note on her bed saying she left with Chit and not to worry about her, she'll call soon... From then on things got awkward and quiet. Holling realized that he really missed and loved his sister; he realized that whenever your siblings are around, it seems like you hate your siblings but the time they're not there, you realize how much you love them. A few days after Heather called late at night when she knew no one but Holling would be awake. Holling answered, they both started crying on the phone, Heather told him, she was stranded alone in Minneapolis and had no way of getting home, since she only had $4.00 left and the train ticket would be about $45.00, and now, the phone in the phone booth she was using, was running out of seconds and that's the last time he heard from her. She left saying not to tell her parents, that night. The next day Holling went to the bank and turned the $100.00 dollars he won at his track meet to cash, but he only got $52.00 back for specific reasons. He sent the money to Heather at the train station, it had a few glitches getting there but she got it. Heather called Holling and told him the time to pick her up at the train station. Holling didn't tell his parents until the next morning. His mom was tearing up, but his dad had no pity for her, as if he didn't care, but Holling yelling at his dad begged him to pick her up, but he went to mow the lawn. Holling then received a call from Meryl Lee asking if he wanted to go a baseball game, but Holling refused, but he did ask her if her dad could drop him off at the station, he agreed. Holling's mother packed a lunch for two, money for two tickets and he was off. Holling reached the station exactly on time. Holling found Heather, and ran to her crying in her arms, they were so happy to see each other. They spent the afternoon walking around hand in hand, then left for the train. They ate the lunch their mom packed and before they knew it they were home! At their supper their mom was so happy to see Heather; his dad only said one sentence: did you find yourself? She didn't answer, Holling stood up for her, and that was the last word they said...

                                                                                                                       By: Dani

The Cross Country Race and Heather's Homecoming (The Wednesday Wars)

The Cross Country Race (The Wednesday Wars)

Holling's school had a running competition on a Saturday in April at Salisbury Park for the people that made teams so on Saturday Danny Hupfer and Holling went to races. One race was for the JV boys and one was for the varsity team. Danny was racing first and in the race he was doing very good until the fifth lap because the eighth graders behind him came and bruised his knees when he was in the woods. Since he had bloody knees he could barely walk so he almost finished last. This inspired Holling to get first in the varsity race especially when Danny told him "Beat the pied ninnies. " I can relate to this because I play a game online called Tetris and I am a naturally competitive person. When someone beats my score in Tetris it motivates me because I want to be the best I could possibly be. Not only does this make me better at playing the game but I also have a lot of fun.

Heather's Homecoming (The Wednesday Wars)

                In the month of May Holling's sister (Heather) left to go to California to go find herself because her dad was not allowing her to go to Columbia University. One night his sister called at a time she knew that only Holling would be awake to answer. She told Holling that she only had four dollars and a train ticket to New York cost forty-four dollars and fifty-five cents. In order for Holling to get his sister back home he cashed in his Salisbury Park savings bond for fifty-two dollars and he sent the money to his sister. His father refused to take him to pick up his sister so Holling asked his mother for enough money for two train tickets and two big lunches. When he found his sister they had grilled cheese sandwiches, two cokes, and chocolate doughnuts. Holling felt very empty inside without his sister and realized for the first time he loved her. This was probably because he missed all of the good times with her and wanted to have more good times with her.

By: Sean

Wednesday Wars

                                                        Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars is a good book writen by the author Gary D. Schmidt. It is about a kid from Camillo Jr. High in Gr. 7. His name is Holling Hoodhood. He has to spend the rest of wednesday with his teacher because he is different then the others.It's good because instead of just telling us what happened he shows us. You think about what could go wrong and maybe something different could happen. At some parts its happy then sad. Something good happens then it goes wrong because of a bad thing that happened. This is such an interesting book that you actually want to read more of the book.

The Wednesday Wars review

            In my opinion the Wednesday Wars is an excellent book.  In the beginning of the book Holling gets the idea that Mrs. Baker hates his guts because on the first day she keeps giving him dirty looks. When he went home and told his parents they did not do anything they just assumed that he did something wrong. Later in October Holling's perspective of Mrs. Baker is changing. In the first chapter Mrs. Baker made Holling do chores around the classroom. When Holing and Mrs. Baker start reading Shakespeare that is when he realizes that she does not hate him. I have two favourite parts in the book so far, one in the second chapter and one in the third chapter. The first one in the second chapter was when Mrs. Baker said, "By the way teachers don't bring up Shakespeare to bore their students to death." When Holling heard this he turned and accidentally pulled the two rat cages apart then they escaped. I can imagine it looking very funny seeing  Holling, Mrs. Baker and Mr. Vandleri sanding on the desks terrified by Mrs. Baker's rats. My other favourite part in the third chapter was when Holling was practicing Caliban's curses in front of a mirror with his shirt off and his sister tells him to shut up. When Holling hears this he says, "A southwest blow on ye and blister on you all o'er," and his Sister opens the door and demands to know what he said, then calls him a weirdo for talking to himself in the mirror half naked. That would have been a funny sight to see, Heather starring at Holling with this look on her face like her brother was crazy. Even though we are only three chapters into it The Wednesday Wars is still an amazing book and I can't wait to read more..

Christina P

The Wednesday Wars Blog

The Wednesday Wars: My Opinion

My opinion on The Wednesday Wars so far is that it is a great book.  We have only read three chapters but I already feel that I know the characters so well.  The ideas that have begun at the beginning of the story are carried throughout the chapters allowing you to understand the ideas and the relation between the characters more.   Mrs. Baker, Holling, Mr. Hoodhood, and Meryl Lee are all characters who are greatly involved in the story and they each have their own little unique traits that make this book so intriguing.   The author, Gary D. Schmidt, uses a lot of hyperboles, metaphors, and similes so that while reading the book it makes you think, but not think so much that you get annoyed.  He also uses descriptive words which allows the reader to understand what emotions the character feels or what the character thinks about something.  The narrator of the story is Holling, who is a seventh grader.  Now, Schmidt is a grown man but he captures every little detail and attitude of a twelve year old.  He makes this story easy to relate and even Holling's older sister has every characteristic of what an older sister should have.  Schmidt is an excellent author who takes every word or emotion and makes it into something bigger and better.  I am thoroughly enjoying this book and I wonder what else will happen throughout Holling's school year.      

-Ashley

Holling and his parents

Holling and His Parents

Hollings relationship with his parents is kind of difficult. When a child tells his or her parents something, I'd expect that the parents would believe him or her. Not Holling's. When he went to his mother because Ms.Baker hates his guts, she immediatly took Ms.Baker's side. I find it unfair because I think the only reason she did take her side is because she is an adult. She probably thinks that Ms.Baker is like a mother who can't pick her favourite child. Holling needed an ally in the war with Ms.Baker and his mother was no help so he went to his father. Big mistake. Holling went to his father and as soon as he spoke his father, he totally ignores him. The reason was he was watching Walter Cronkite and didn't want to miss anything. Really? He picked T.V over his own son! Finally when Holling's father paid enough attention to him so he could actually hear what he was saying, he told him to be nice and never complain. Why is that? His father was an architect and he had a shot of being the new architect for a sporting emporium. BAKER Sporting Emporium. If Holling was bad, his father would be broke and Holling, when he grows up, wouldn't become the boss of Hoodhood and Associates. I believe that if you care about your business more than your child..... you need some parenting books.


From:Caroline

Holling and His Parents

The relationship between Holling and his parents is quite complex. His 

mother is the type of person who would skip to conclusions without the 

slightest idea of what really happened. When Holling turns to his 

mother for help, she simply takes Mrs. Baker's side. She thinks her 

son is over exaggerating and assumes everything is perfectly fine. She 

does not believe that Mrs. Baker "hates Holling's guts", when at the 

same time she wasn't even there to witness what happened. Holling's 

father was quite annoyed when he tried to tell him his problem. His 

father was what you call a perfectionist, and since he was an 

architect, the Baker Sporting Emporium owned by Mrs. Baker's family 

has considered "Hoodhood and Associates" and two other companies to 

design their new building. As a perfectionist, it did not matter to 

him what his son's situation was, it mattered how it would affect his 

career. He did not want the name of "Hoodhood" to have a bad 

reputation, therefore he told Holling to behave and cooperate with 

Mrs. Baker. It was as if he didn't have a care in the world, other 

than knowing other people appreciated the Hoodhood family. After all 

of this, Holling of course feels very frustrated and upset that nobody 

understood what he was going through. I certainly would not like to 

have parents like that.

- Christine.

Holling Hoodhood

The Wednesday Wars

Holling Hoodhood's Parents

            Mr. and Mrs. Hoodhood seem to disregard every word Holling explains to them.  Holling approaches his mom to inform her, always feeling like he has to convince her, and explains to his mother that his teacher Ms. Baker despises him.  Mrs. Hoodhood denies that Mrs. Baker detests Holling even though she doesn't even know the details.  As she is told by Holling what took place at school that day, the information goes in through one ear and out the other.  Not even listening to what her son just told her, she automatically takes the teachers side without really knowing the full story.  In disbelief of how oblivious his mother is, Holling goes and looks for the hope of a decent ally against his teacher "out to get him".  Holling's father is an architect that owns a company Hoohhood and Associates.  Hoodhood and Associates was being considered for an immense deal with the Baker Family's Sporting Emporium and their new building.   Holling's father was watching his Walter Cronkite show when Holling came and explains his problem with his new grade seven teacher Ms. Baker loathing him.  The first response Mr. Hoodhood has is "What did you do?"  As Holling explains his innocence and Mrs. Baker "hating his guts," all that registers to Mr. Hoodhood is that Ms. Baker is part of the Baker family that is choosing the architect for the new building for the Baker Sporting Emporium.  At that moment all that Holling's dad is interested in is ordering Holling to respect and praise Mrs. Baker for the sake of the Hoodhood and Associates chances of succeeding.  For Holling this wasn't a surprise because his perfectionist father usually doesn't pay much attention to him just their "Perfect House."  Holling's house is always trying to be improved by his parents.  The exterior of his house is smooth, bleach white which Mr. Hoodhood paints every year.  The azaleas are all the same size to match the perfect walkway leading up to the perfect porch.  The door that never squeaks opens into an uncomfortable living room perfectly covered in plastic.  Instead of spending time with his family Mr. Hoodhood searches for something in the house to improve and perfect.  Holling feels like all his dad really cares about is his house and work.  But Holling must realize that his father works for him and does love him.  Holling doesn't think that his parents really care or love Holling but I think that throughout this book Holling will begin to realize that his parents do everything for Holling and his sister.  Hopefully Holling will understand his unique family and that his family truly does love both him and his sister.

Christina Z

Ashley's Wednesday Wars Blog

Family Relationships

Based on the first chapter of The Wednesday Wars, I would say that Holling's relationship with his parents is not a very strong one.  They seem to love each other very much but they have their flaws.  Holling has a problem because he thinks his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him after only the first day of school.  When Holling tells his parents they appear to care about their own concerns then their child's.  When he asks his mom for help she just says that it is impossible for his teacher to hate him because they hardly know each other.  After Holling realizes that his mother is of no help he asks his father for guidance.  Mr. Hoodhood owns an architect company called 'Hoodhood and Associates' and he really cares about his job.  Mrs. Baker's family is the owner of one of the companies that Mr. Hoodhood hopes to be designing a wonderful building for.  He wants his son to be nice to Mrs. Baker so her family will choose his company for designing their building.  Neither one of Holling's parents will sit down with him to discuss his dilemma.  I would get frustrated at my parents if they just ignored me and Holling also feels the same way.  He feels annoyed that parents never realize what you are trying to say and that they always think that they are right.  Also, Holling's mother is expecting him to keep a secret from his father.  Mrs. Hoodhood smokes and she know that her husband will go nuts if he knew.  Holling knows that she smokes and he is not allowed to tell his father about it.  This is dishonest which is not good in a family relationship.  I think that Holling sometimes wishes that his parents were more kind and always had open arms for him.  They are definitely a unique family with distinctive characteristics which is part of what makes this book interesting so far.

-Ashley

the wednesday wars

Holling and His Parents

            Holling Hoodhood and his parents have a very strange relationship. Mrs. Hoodhood, Holling's mother makes a lot of assumptions. She assumes because when Holling comes home from school and tells his mother that Mrs. Baker hates him his mother assumes he is overreacting and automatically takes Mrs. Baker's side even though she does not know what happened. As Holling says, it is like pulling a string on their back and a bad recording comes on. Holling's dad is more concerned about his business than Holling's problems.  He cares more about his business because Mrs. Baker's family owns the store that is going to hire Mr. Hoodhood's services, since Mrs. Baker does not like Holling then her family won't like the Hoodhood name and they won't want to hire Hoodhood and Associates. So far Holling's parents take Mrs. Baker's side, but I hope later in the book they will realize Holling was right.  

Christina P         

Holling HoodHood

I think that Holling has a complicated relationship with his parents because during the story it looks like his parents don’t really pay attention to him. His father puts his work and t.v before Holling his son. His mother smokes but doesn’t want Holling to find out about it and his mother seems like she doesn’t really pay attention to him as his father.

Francie009

Holling's Relationship With His Parents

I think the relationship Holling has with his parents isn't that good according to the first chapter. His parents don't seem to listen to him, except for his mom (a little bit) because she asked him how school was. In the book he asked his dad for help and his dad sort of told him to be quiet because he was watching the news. I think Holling felt sad because his dad thinks the news is more important than him. Holling's dad tops it off by being rude to him and telling him he's ruining the family business. Holling's mom was nice a little bit, but she is hiding a secret to the family, that she smokes and he wasn't supposed to know and if he did he wasn't supposed to say anything to his dad, so she's even hiding it more from her husband and last time I checked marriage wasn't supposed to have any secrets. So I think he doesn't have anything special with his parents. To me it seems like he does not really like them that much at the begining of the book, but something could change later on in the book.

 -Marc 

The Wednesday Wars: Holling’s Parents

The Wednesday Wars: Holling's Parents

          Holling's parents are just like average day parents except for the fact that his mom smokes but that is the only real difference. His parents and he live directly in the middle of the town on Lee Avenue. His dad is the type of person that likes the news especially when interesting stories like the war in Vietnam.  His dad is in the architectural business and he currently is in the top three choices for the Baker Sports Emporium. That is also the reason that he will not help Holling with his Mrs. Baker problem.  Holling's mother took the teacher's side when Holling told her about his problem with Mrs. Baker. I think that his mother does not really care about him as much as other things in his life. Not to say she does not love her son but his mother would care about other things more.

By: Sean 

Wednesday Wars

Monday, November 22, 2010

                              

                                      Wednesday Wars

    In the book, Wednesday Wars, main character Holling Hoodhood has a normal child to parent relationship. But ever since Holling feels that Mrs. Baker doesn't seem to like Holling, nobody in his family believes him. Since Mrs. Baker is part of the Baker Sporting Emporium, they are excepting the Hoodhood and Associates to be in the top 3. So, everyone in the Hoodhood family has to be in their best behavior. But, for Holling, it's hard because Mrs. Baker is always giving him a hard time and he can tell that she hates his guts. When he tells his parents, they would say she doesn't and to behave around her. It seems like Holling's parents are listening to Holling, but not really paying attention to him a lot or not getting the fact that he is telling the truth. Its like someone screaming on the top of their lungs in a crowded room, but nobody seems to notice.

             

     By : Jodie 

Wednesday Wars

          For the past few days our grade seven class has been reading a book; "The Wednesday Wars." We have been reading the book as a class, we began to read the first chapter and within the first chapter the book was amazing! The book was about a kid named Holling Hoodhood who gets put in a class, whose teacher hates him literally, and he doesn't know why so now he has to find out why!

While trying to figure out this mystery Holling asks his parents if they know anything. Holling's parents are… unique, one of a kind and kind of strange. His father is an architect who has his own association: Hoodhood and Associates.  His father being an architect had one priority to live and maintain a perfect house. Their house was located in the middle of the north and south side of their town. Their side walk was perfectly painted as was there house the flowers were arranged perfectly, the living room had no life in it and the grand room was not so grand etc. It was the perfect house, so you'd think? To Holling's dad watching Walter Kronkite was more important than taking care of his son's problems I'd say the Perfect words to describe him is undependable, picky, care-free. Holling's mother had a secret or a mother son secret. Holling's mother smoked, as you know smoking is a very bad thing to do but it also very addictive, Holling's mother was one of those people. Holling was not supposed to know she smoked, but if he did he was definitely not supposed to tell his father. Holling's mother was still more talkative and was always there for his kids problems but still a little strange, she was like most moms always there for her kids and always says the same things, they always contradict with you just to make you feel better and to let you down easy. The Perfect words that would describe the mother are: dependable, decent and kind.  Holling's parents are like none other they're strange, awkward but they're still his parents and I'm sure Holling would never exchange them for the Perfect parents!

                                                                  

The Wednesday Wars

The Wednesday Wars (Holling's Parents)

I do not think Holling and his parents are that close. I think this because, when Holling talked to them about Mrs. Baker and how she hated his guts, they didn't really seem to care. They did not even listen to what he was tying to tell them. His mother just immediately took Mrs. Baker's side, without hearing his side of the story. Holling's father was too busy watching the news to care about what he had to say. I do not think that their family is that close, since they did not listen to what he was saying.

                                                                         By: Tiffany K.

HOLLING HOODHOOD

HOLLING HOODHOOD

   

      Holling Hoodhood has an interesting relationship with his parents. It seems that his problems do not exist in his parent's eyes. The fact that his teacher 'hates his guts' does not occur as a problem to his parents. Obviously the relationship between one and other isn't so strong. For example in the story Holling has a problem with his teacher Mrs.Baker and goes to his mother as an alley against Mrs.Baker. In results Holling's mother just reassures him that his teacher does not hates his gut's. The problem to me is Holling's mother skips the story and goes to a conclusion without even knowing what happend at school that day. Once that had backfired he had gone to his father in hope he might have an better suggestion. When he had told his father the problem his father basicly said deal with it. The reason why being was because Mrs.Baker was a family owner of a bakery that was constructing a sporting emporium, and Mr.Hoodhood was one of the three choices to build the sporting emporium. If Holling's father had to say something to Mrs.Baker it might risks his chance to build the sporting emporium. So there for Holling suggestion from his father was to deal with it. The problem with Mr.Hoodhood is he doesn't care if his son's teacher hates his guts ,if it risks his chance to build the sporting emporium he won't try to help much. That is why I don't see a real bond between him and his parents.

           By: Lauren