The story is, at times, a little grandiose but overall I really enjoyed the chronicling of Holling HoodHood's weekly adventures stuck all alone with a teacher he mistakenly thinks hates him. I'm not sure if the Mrs. Baker character was especially identifiable with most kids, but as a future educator myself I really enjoyed following her progression of slowly learning to relate to and inspire a somewhat unruly student.

Holling Hoodhood (what a great name!) is a seventh grader in 1967-68. The only Presbyterian in a class of Catholic and Jewish students, he has to spend every Wednesday afternoon alone with his teacher Mrs. Baker while his classmates go to religious instruction. The first two sentences of the book leave no question about Holling's relationship with Mrs. Baker:

"Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun. Me."

Those two sentences tell us a lot about Holling in general. He lives his life in superlatives. He goes from being the class hero to the class goat and back again in a matter of pages. Like many seventh graders, the events of his own life take on extreme importance, while the events of history occupy the background. As we go from September to May with Holling, his relationship with Mrs. Baker improves, he becomes a hero of stage and track, and he gets the girl. Schmidt tells a compelling story, but his real talent is in writing about relationships. Through the smallest details, we see Holling's relationships develop with Mrs. Baker, with his sister, and with his dad.

But even more interesting is the way in which Schmidt layers the events of 1967-68 in the background of Holling's story. Mrs. Baker's husband is away at war, as are many other family members and friends of the staff Camillo Junior High. Holling's sister embraces the peace movement, and even Holling's dad pauses when assassinations rock the country. Schmidt shows us these events through the eyes of a seventh grader, capturing the essence of this period in history.

This book is funny and sad and rings true with each word. I finished it in a marathon reading session after my family was asleep last Sunday night. With tears rolling down my face, I felt lucky to have seen the world through the eyes of Holling Hoodhood, if only for a year. ( )

This book is set in 1967 Long Island, narrated by a seventh grade boy, the awesomely named Holling Hoodhood. As the book starts, Holling is convinced that his seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. While the other students in his class go to Catholic or Jewish religious education classes, Holling, a Presbyterian, is forced to stay alone with Mrs. Baker. Eventually they start reading Shakespeare together. Sounds like a fairly simple story, right? Think again. In the hands of Schmidt, what could be a basic, boring coming of age story is a masterpiece. I laughed out loud and I sobbed out loud, sometimes within the space of the same page. I really cannot recommend this book enough. Highly recommended for kids and adults! Five stars. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr. 7-10, better readers?

Plot Summary: Holling is the only one at his school who does leave on Wednesday afternoons to go to religious school (Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El or Catchism at Saint Adelbert's). Instead, being a Presbyterian, Holling is stuck with Mrs. Baker, who makes his clean the erasers and do chores for him, until she decides they will read Shakespeare together.

There's lots of conflicts in the story: Holling needs to get cream puffs for his entire class because his class is jealous they think he got one, but really it was ruined with chalk dust; Holling gets the role of Ariel the fairy in a local Shakespeare theater and is humiliated when a picture of him wearing tights is on the front page of the local newspaper; Holling's older sister wants to be a flower child which makes her dad angry, eventually leaving her to run away with her boyfriend only to need Holling to transfer money and pick her up at the bus station; Holling tries to talk to his father about his problems but his dad always thinks about his architect business first, saying they may need a new architect and don't ruin the family name.

Setting: 1967, Camillo Junior High, Long Island

Characters:
Holling Hoodhood - 7th grader
Mrs. Betty Baker - LA teacher, owner of Baker Sporting Emporium
Mr. Vendleri - janitor
Mrs. Sidman - victim of pranks, new principal
Mr. Goldman - owner of bakery with creampuffs
Meryl Lee - Holling's mean classmate
Doug Swieteck - prankster, troublemaker
Doug Swieteck's brother - gets tripped by Holling
Sycorax and Caliban - rats
Mai Thi Huong - Holling's classmate
Danny Hupfer - Holling's classmate
Mr. Guareschi - principal
Holling's sister - 16 y/o
Mr. Petrelli - Holling's social studies teacher
Miss Violet - chorus teacher
Coach Quartrini - gym teacher and track coach
Mrs. Bigio - school cook, starts out racist against Mai Thi for being Vietnamese, but then adopts her at end

Recurring Themes: Vietnam war, rats, escape, asbestos, cream puffs, Shakespeare, friendship, family

Controversial Issues: Holling enjoys swearing with Shakespeare:
"thou jesting monkey thou"
"apes with foreheads villainous low"
"toads, beetles, bats"
"pied ninny"

Personal Thoughts: Schmidt has a very distinct voice and uses description well. While this wasn't a laugh out loud book, it definitely had some humor in the way Holling experienced life. Due to the long chapters and the emphasis on Shakespeare, I don't think this book has a big appeal to kids. On the other hand, it does introduce kids to Shakespeare in a way that may appeal to teenagers--talking about Shakespeare's swearing. ( )

Possible grade 5 read-aloud? ( )