THE WEDNESDAY WARS - a Newbery Honor book

I LOVED this book!! Maybe because I was a child in the '60s and a teenager in the '70s. I could relate to the Monkeys (had a crush on Davy Jones), idealistic teachers, struggling with the losses in Vietnam, and the importance of how you appeared to others. I had the aunt that had the plastic on the chairs which you could only look at instead of sitting. I knew people who would sit in front of the TV and only come up for air during commercials. I remember having "bomb drills." I remember hearing people making fun of the "flower children" and their desire for peace. I remember hearing about Bobby Kennedy and seeing my mother crying the day he died. A friend had a father that would not "bend" and treat his children as anything but an extension of his successful self, not loved ones. I had an idealistic teacher that was fired due to her views and desire to take us to another level intellectually. I lost a cousin in Vietnam.

All of these things happen in the book THE WEDNESDAY WARS by Gary D. Schmidt. Holling Hoodhood is left alone in his classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, every Wednesday when the rest of the class either goes to Hebrew school or Catechism class because he is the only Presbyterian. Holling is determined that Mrs. Baker is trying to get him. He sees everything she does as a plan to torture him. But in actuallity, Mrs. Baker ends up using the writings of Shakespeare to help Holling discover himself and his view of life. Hollings friends, Danny, Meryl Lee, and Mai Thi, go through many experiences in the book that touch and change Holling. Whether these changes would have occurred the way they did without Mrs. Baker's focus on Shakespeare is something to ponder. His despite for his sister, Heather, grows into an understanding, respect, and love. Most of all, the fear of his teacher grows into respect and caring, particularly when her husband, who had been missing in Vietnam, returns home.

I would not only recommend this book to students that would benefit from learning from Hollings experience with introspection and words making him think, but also for any other person from the 60's and 70's. It was like going back to a warm and cozy room listening to the Monkeys and reading about the latest "flower child" event. I will definitely be reading this again!

FEATHERS - a Newbery Honor book

FEATHERS by Jacqueline Woodson makes the reader see life through another person's eyes. Frannie is intrigued by two things - a poem by Emily Dickinson and the new boy in her class. The poem's stanza "Hope is the thing with feathers" has Frannie puzzled. Her other puzzlement is trying to understand the new boy who is white, even though he says he isn't white, in a school of black students across the tracks from where they think he should be attending a school. The students in class call him "Jesus Boy" because someone says he looks like Jesus. Through the events in the book, Frannie's friend Samantha begins to believe the new boy may be Jesus returning to Earth. She states that the two most powerful words in the Bible are "Jesus wept."

Frannie has not had an easy life. Her mother has lost two babies, each time seeing her mother lose a little bit of her zest for life. Frannie's brother, Sean, is deaf. Therefore, anytime someone makes fun of someone regarding deafness, it cuts Frannie like a knife. Trevor, the school bully, is constantly harassing "Jesus", which the new boy prefers to be called. Maribel, the school snob, is more interested in how everything in life effects her and thus does not like "Jesus" because he pays for things in the family's store with pennies. Frannie won't go to church because she feels that God has let her family down. Her mother is pregnant again and Frannie is afraid of losing her for good this time. But through the events in this book, she finally goes to church. She sees "Jesus" stand up for himself against Trevor when he admits his father and mother aren't white (he was adopted and moved to the school so that things might be better than at the school across the tracks), Trevor takes a swing, stumbles and cries. Frannie and "Jesus" help Trevor up. Trevor's ability to scare and bully anyone is gone. "Jesus Boy" states that now Trevor is Jesus because Jesus wept. Then through her writing for class, Frannie is able to see life for what it is, the good that she has experienced through the pain, just as "Jesus" has. She realizes her brother's disability is how she learned "to speak" and experience life through words.

This whole book makes you stop and think. This book allows students to see that everyone has issues, beliefs, and these things can be changed by how you react to life's situations. Frannie discovers the ability of hope to "float" into your life like feathers and not even realize it is there.

This is a powerful book that I would definitely share with my higher readers, particularly those students who need to see the good in every situation. Woodson once again touches the reader with words that make you sit back and think about how you view life and what you can do to make a difference by just being kind and caring.

GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! VOICES FROM A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE by Laura Amy Schlitz - 2008 John Newbery Medal Winner

When I first read this 2008 Newbery winner, I was frustrated. It was right after I had read THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET which I felt should have won the award. Then I reread GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! VOICES FROM A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE by Schlitz and found I hadn't given it a chance. This unique book is actually full of information regarding Medieval times, and the author gains your interest by revealing something in a monologue or two-person play. Then Laura Amy Schlitz follows some items of interest with a "little background information" about that topic, such as "Jews in Medieval Society" after her two-person play (not sure if that is what this type of monologue is called) about Jacob Ben Salomon, the moneylender's son, and Petronella, the merchant's daughter.

Schlitz, a librarian, created these 19 monologues and 2 two-person plays to support a classroom unit on the Middle Ages. She wanted each student to have an opportunity to participate, so she created these monologues and two-person plays to teach about the children that lived during the Middle Ages and to give each student at least 3 minutes to be become actively involved in learning about the time period and become a star.

I particularly enjoyed how the author interconnected several of the monologues by having the characters have an interaction or refer to each other. The students are able to see how the varlet's child, Lowdy, saves the life of the runaway, Pask. The author teaches through these monologues how -- a lord's nephew, a blacksmith's daughter, a plowboy, a shepherdess, a doctor's son, a pilgrim, a villein's daughter, a miller's son, a half-wit, a knight's son, a falconer's son, a lord's daughter, a mud slinger, a moneylender's son, a merchant's daughter, a varlet's child, a runaway, a glassblower's apprentice, glassblower's daughters, a sniggler, a tanner's apprentice, and a beggar -- would have lived and interacted in Medieval times.

I personally would not use this other than to introduce it as a Newbery Medal winner since I think it may be above my student's in elementary school's comprehension and/or reading level. If a classroom teacher chooses to teach a book, such as THE CASTLE IN THE ATTIC, I would definitely suggest this book to go along with the lesson to teach the students about the life of that time period.