A good friend sheepishly recommended this book to me. “It’s young,” she said. “But it’s funny.” And because she’s a good friend (and because I don’t mind a good YA here and there), I started it.
It took some adjusting to feel comfortable inside the head of a junior high boy, but it didn’t take long before I was smiling to myself at his woe-is-me perspective, his schoolmate’s antics, and the way he would use his forced memorization of Shakespeare to his advantage.
Gary D. Schmidt is a good writer.
Really good.
He’s won two Newberry Honors Awards (one for Wednesday Wars) and has at least twenty books to his name. And for you historical fiction lovers, guess what? This book takes place during the 60’s, spanning the end of LBJ’s presidency, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of MLK Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.
It’s light-hearted but by the end, it’s deep. And beautiful. And moving.
I teared up twice in the last third of the book and some of those descriptions will stick with me for a long time. Something about summer coming like a whisper through a window. And “Whatever it means to be a friend, taking a black eye for someone has to be in it.”
And this one:
“Think of the sound you make when you let go after holding your breath for a very, very long time. Think of the gladdest sound you know: the sound of dawn on the first day of spring break, the sound of a bottle of Coke opening, the sound of a crowd cheering in your ears because you’re coming down to the last part of a race–and you’re ahead. Think of the sound of water over stones in a cold stream, and the sound of wind through green trees on a late May afternoon in Central Park. Think of the sound of a bus coming into the station carrying someone you love. Then put all those together.”
All in all, I would read this again. I would read it to my boys out loud, and I think I’ll even buy my own copy so they can savor the stories, the language, the funny parts over and over again.
Definitely check out Wednesday Wars and the winsome Gary D. Schmidt.
***Update: I have now read the follow-up books Okay for Now and Just Like That. Okay for Now was stellar and is a new all-time favorite.