The Wednesday Wars: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

On New Year’s Day, a picture of Holling leaping across the stage as Ariel the fairy (yellow tights, feathers, and all) appears in the hometown newspaper. Holling is mortified, and his embarrassment only multiplies when at school on Monday, he finds that Doug Swieteck’s brother posted hundreds of the photos, filling every wall. As he walks through the halls, everyone snickers. Even Holling’s sister at the high school gets made fun of because of the photo.

At the family dinner table, Holling’s father, who was just announced Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1967, informs the family that Hoodhood and Associates was invited to put in a bid for the new junior high school. They will be up against Kowalski and Associates, the other local architecture firm—one that’s probably headed towards bankruptcy if they don’t win the bid.

On Wednesday, Holling and Mrs. Baker discuss Macbeth. She chides Holling for mixing up the names of characters, and points out beautiful themes from the play, in particular, that, “compared with love, malice is a small and petty thing” (109). These words strike a chord with Holling, who at the moment, bears the brunt of Doug Swieteck’s brother’s malice in the form of the embarrassing newspaper photo plastering the halls.