The Teaching Experience

The Wednesday Wars

by Gary D. Schmidt

Another top notch Newbery Honor book for this year. I was surprised by the similarities between Feathers and The Wednesday Wars even though they are so different in their tone. Both are about students who are greatly influenced by an English teacher, both experience the difficulties of junior high life and both focus on family issues. Feathers was more of a drama with a few funny parts but The Wednesday Wars was all funny parts. I laughed so hard I cried several times. Then at the end, I was crying because I was so moved by the connections the protagonist made about his experiences and life lessons.

The Wednesday Wars is written in first person from the perspective of Holling, a seventh grader. He is a terrific storyteller and really captures the mood, emotion and comedy of every situation. He finds himself in a difficult position with his teacher. He thinks, no, rather he knows, that she hates him and he has to figure out how to suffer through without complaining for the sake of his father’s business. Holling uses allusions to Treasure Island and several of Shakespeare’s plays to explain his awful circumstances without sounding too book-y.

I loved the conversations he had with his teacher about Shakepseare’s plays. I thought connections he made and the way she tied things together was simply ideal. It’s how I hope every conversation with a student would turn out. 

I hope you enjoy reading The Wednesday Wars as much as I did. I am still amazed that this one didn’t win the Newbery Medal and am excited to read the Medal winner.

Feathers

by Jacqueline Woodson

Newberry Honor Book 2008

As I began reading this book I immediately identified that it was young adult literature. I clearly saw the protagonist, Frannie, as a sixth-grade girl. But before long I found myself experiencing the story through her eyes instead of my own. While my background has very little in common with Frannie’s, I connected with her experiences and they elicited emotions and memories long forgotten. Frannie’s journey of discovery is a common tale told in a powerful way.

As a teacher, I loved reading Frannie’s own perspective on her teacher, Mrs. Johnson and the activities they did in their classroom. I think Mrs. Johnson had the impact on Frannie that every teacher hopes for. Mrs. Johnson was not revolutionary or novel, but what she taught really stuck with Frannie and carried her through the story. While I’m sure it wasn’t the author’s intention, Mrs. Johnson did some creative writing and analyzing activities with the students in the story that would be great to replicate in a classroom, especially as an accompaniment to reading the book together as a class.

I can easily see why it’s a Newberry Honor book. I have a hard time imagining the caliber of the book that won the Newberry Medal 2008 and look forward to reading it.

You can find a short audio excerpt from Feathers and accompanying activities at The Reading Corner.