Meg's take on Wednesday Wars

Always the last to the table. I just finished Wednesday Wars last night, and let me just say, I loved it. I didn't think I did until I was halfway done. I didn't want to surrender my critical observations of how unrealistic I felt this 7th grade boy was, but in the end, I gave in. Holling may have been a bit more introspective than what I assume the 7th grade species to be, but in a time like his, perhaps that was required for kids of all ages. Can you imagine trying to make sense of assassinations, a senseless war, and the atomic bomb issue looming over you every day? And where better to look than Shakespeare? (which, by the way, was my absolute favorite part...I want to be Mrs. Baker. I love how Holling says that perhaps he really believed that all Mrs. Baker had ever done was sit behind her desk...So funny.)

I thought the way he described his parents' marriage falling apart was interesting. About how it doesn't all end at once, and it is the little things that start to go. A very observant 7th grader, I would say.

I loved the running part: a perfect segue into our next book.


And here's my favorite...a definitive description of the complete non-definition of the world:

That’s the way it is in the real world.

It’s not always smiles. Sometimes the real world is like Hamlet. A little scared. Unsure. A little angry. Wishing that you could fix something that you can’t fix. Hoping that maybe something would fix itself, but thinking that hoping that way is stupid.

And sometimes the real world is more like Bobby Kennedy, who was a sure bet for the Democratic nomination and probably would have been president of the United States and stopped the war, but who got shot at point-blank range.