The Wednesday Wars - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

In 1967-1968, Holling Hoodhood is a 7th grader in Camillo Junior High in Long Island, New York, who has a problem. In his town, families live in different areas based on religion. On Wednesdays, his Catholic classmates learn the Catechism, and his Jewish classmates attend Hebrew school. Holling, being Presbyterian, stays behind in class with his teacher Mrs. Baker, whom Holling believes "hates his guts" but later befriends. She at first instructs him to clean the room and do other chores; then she begins reading Shakespeare with him. While she makes Holling take exams and write essays on the plays to find out if he really understands them, Sycorax and Caliban, the class rats, who escaped from their cage when Holling was cleaning it as one of Mrs. Baker's chores, scuttle in the ceiling and some of the teachers try to catch them. Later on in the year, Holling begins to enjoy Shakespeare, particularly his colorful insults and curses.

On one of the days he is with Mrs. Baker, she says he may have one of several dozen creams puffs if he cleans all the erasers. Even though he ruined all the puffs, when his friends find out that he got one, they say that he owes them cream puffs. He saves all of his allowance, but ends up short. The baker selling them, Mr. Goldman is, coincidentally, in need of a boy who knows Shakespeare. Holling gets the cream puffs in exchange for promising to play Ariel in a community production of The Tempest.

Holling is quietly disappointed with his father, whose business ambitions dominate his life and conversation. He not only fails to attend the performance, but also fails to pick Holling up and take him to an autograph signing with his baseball hero, Mickey Mantle. Fortunately Holling makes it to the autographing by using public transit, but Mickey Mantle tells Holling that he doesn't do autographs for kids in yellow tights. Danny Hupfer, who has already gotten his baseball signed, drops his ball in front of Mickey, saying "I guess I don't need this after all,". He and Holling leave. Mrs. Baker, whose brother-in-law owns the sporting goods store, finds a way to make it up to Holling through her connections. She proceeds to have Horace Clarke and Joe Pepitone visit Holling, Doug, and Danny for standing up to Mantle.

Holling's older sister, Heather, referred to only as "my sister" for most of the novel, is in the midst of a rebellion against her father. She cares about civil rights, works for Bobby Kennedy, opposes the Vietnam War, and disagrees with her father about almost everything. She and Holling bicker, as siblings do, but they genuinely care for one another.

Holling's relationship with Meryl Lee Kowalski begins to blossom, although her father is an architect in competition with Holling's father. The two are very competitive against each other, and Mr. Hoodhood wants to drive Kowalski and Associates out of business. A misunderstanding involving their fathers threatens to break them up, but they make up and become better friends afterwards. Meanwhile, their friend Danny Hupfer is anxious about his upcoming bar-mitzvah. Also,Mai Thi, A reffugee from Veitnam, is treated badly at school. However, Mrs. Baker, whose husband is missing in action in a dangerous part of Vietnam, treats her kindly, and her friends stand up for her. One of the many people to treat her bad is the cook, Mrs. Bigio, whose husband is away at war. He later goes missing and is found dead on a hill.

After Mr. Hoodhood forces his daughter to work for him after school and on Saturdays, preventing her from volunteering for the Robert Kennedy campaign, the family tension increases. When her father dictates that she will not be allowed to attend Columbia University, his wish to keep her "safe" is transparent—he wants to keep her working for him for low wages and thus control her activities. She abruptly runs away with a boyfriend named Chit, after throwing a plate of lima beans at the father, and tension in the household increases. Mr. Hoodhood says that his daughter need not seek help from him in the future, and Mrs. Hoodhood quietly rebels in the only ways open to her, by no longer cooking her husband's favorite foods and by declining to join him for an evening drive in his new car.

Chit later dumps Holling's sister in Minneapolis during an arguement with him, and she calls Holling and he brings her back to New York via bus. During this episode, his sister's name is finally revealed in a touching coincidence. When his father refuses to drive him to the terminal to meet his sister, and his mother is apparently unwilling or unable to defy his father, he is given a ride by Mr. Kowalski. However, he still needs a way home for himself and his sister. His mother unhesitatingly gives him the money without telling her husband. He brings his sister home, and when Mr. Hoodhood mockingly asks his daughter whether she found herself, Holling replies for her, saying, "She found me."

As the school year draws to a close, Mrs. Baker, who has learned that her missing husband is safe and will be coming home, takes the children on a camping trip. It involves many misfortunes, including losing the can-opener, being soaked by a downpour, and being attacked by clouds of mosquitoes, especially when the widowed Holling briefly describes the closing weeks of school and the reunion of Mrs. Baker and her husband, but the maturity he has gained from his experiences shows in his commentary about the Shakespeare plays he has read and the way he connects the Shakespearean life lessons to those around him. It is clear that with the help of his sister, his friends, and his caring teacher, Holling is on the road to choosing his life path for himself rather than his Dad.