From AudioFile
In the period of the Vietnam War, Holling Hoodhood starts his seventh-grade year at odds with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. Wednesday afternoons are their private time together, and the pastimes are many--from clapping erasers to dissecting various Shakespeare plays. Through Holling, his family, and his school compatriots, Schmidt takes clichés such as perfect families, battle-ax teachers, and incorrigible students and makes them original. Joel Johnstone's narration gains potency from his even voice and pacing. Moments poignant with lost chances for understanding, such as those between Holling's father and sister, are as vivid as those of humor. Listen, laugh, cry, and marvel at the goodness of humankind. A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine--
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates attend religious instruction, Holling Hoodhood, the only Presbyterian in his seventh grade, is alone in the classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who Holling is convinced hates his guts. He feels more certain after Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare's plays for Holling to discuss during their shared afternoons. Each month in Holling's tumultuous seventh-grade year is a chapter in this quietly powerful coming-of-age novel set in suburban Long Island during the late '60s. The slow start may deter some readers, and Mrs. Baker is too good to be true: she arranges a meeting between Holling and the New York Yankees, brokers a deal to save a student's father's architectural firm, and, after revealing her past as an Olympic runner, coaches Holling to the varsity cross-country team. However, Schmidt, whose Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2005) was named both a Printz and a Newbery Honor Book, makes the implausible believable and the everyday momentous. Seamlessly, he knits together the story's themes: the cultural uproar of the '60s, the internal uproar of early adolescence, and the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare's words. Holling's unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open. Engberg, Gillian
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