Gary Schmidt Y’all!

What book could you read over and over again?

Yesterday was asking us about a book character and today it’s about a book. I mentioned that there’s a young adult author that I adore and his books are the ones that I could absolutely read over and over again. In fact, I have. As a middle school English teacher, I taught his books every school year in my 7th grade class. The author is Gary D. Schmidt and I first learned of him when I became the middle school English teacher at my school. I had the opportunity to talk with the out-going teacher before I took over. She used his book Okay for Now in her classes and told me how she had her students write an additional chapter. She sent the students’ chapters to the author and he gave individual feedback to every student. When I bought a copy of that book, I noticed that it was a sequel, more of a spin-off of The Wednesday Wars. So I bought that one too and read it first. I fell immediately in love with the book and really, all of his other books.

Let me pause for a moment here and say that I absolutely don’t re-read books. I much prefer to watch the same movie several times than read a book repeatedly. It’s probably because I’m so impatient. When I know what’s going to happen next, it’s not hard to wait throughout a movie to see all the things happen that I know are coming up. But if I have to read it word for word to advance the story? No thank you. I just finished reading Stephen King’s The Stand and I have seen people online talk about having read that book multiple times. How?! It’s over a thousand pages! Literally!

But as a teacher who taught the same books from year to year, it was different. Mainly because I couldn’t be impatient. I had to strategically pause the reading of the book in places anyway because that’s just how teaching a novel study goes.

But Gary Schmidt’s books, The Wednesday Wars in particular is amazing. I re-read that book and his others just because they are that good. They’re geared for the young adult/middle school age group so they are a fairly quick read. But the story has something for everyone. The main characters are teenagers, but the way they interact with the adults in their lives makes the adult characters just as important as the kids. I wouldn’t say they’re coming of age stories, though they do focus a lot on kids dealing with life and figuring out who they want to be. The books are equally heart-warming and heart-breaking, all in the same book. There are themes of redemption, understanding, tolerance, all things that make you think and make you really root for the main characters.

I haven’t taught for two years, and it’s been three years since I taught this particular book. The last year that I was in the classroom, my old boss made me change all the books I was teaching because I guess I had taught that one long enough. Whatever. I still buy new books by Gary Schmidt whenever they’re released though. I will always be a fan of young adult fiction because that’s what I taught for many years and sometimes it’s just really good.

By the way, I did send him a few fangirl emails over the years. Particularly when that movie “The Holdovers” with Paul Giamatti came out. That movie seemed like two or three of Schmidt’s novels had been combined into a movie. Apparently he’s a professor at a university in Michigan? Wisconsin? Somewhere up north. I did a little light internet stalking and found him on the university’s website and emailed him that way. I’m not ashamed, because he wrote back! Very thoughtful replies! He’s one of those people that I would absolutely love to meet and when I told people, they would have no idea who I was talking about.

If you’re into reading at all, seriously, read The Wednesday Wars. You absolutely will not regret it. It’s historical fiction and takes place during the Vietnam War and it’s just brilliant writing. My students didn’t feel the same way about it, honestly, but that’s o.k. I loved it anyway.