FINISHED:

Schmidt, Gary D. (2007). The Wednesday wars. New York: Clarion.

[This one really did turn out to be pretty darn fun. It's set during the Vietnam War and is about a 7th grade kid named Holling Hoodhood who is Presbyterian, so, while on Wednesday afternoons half of his class goes to Temple and the other half go to Catechism, he's stuck alone with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. After initially punishing Holling for being Presbyterian (if he were Catholic or Jewish she'd have the afternoon off...) by making him clean chalkboards and erasers, she decides to have him start working his way through Shakespeare's plays. It's a fun series of wacky stuff occurring over the course of a school year, with Mrs. Baker's husband being lost in the War, Holling having to deal with his father whose only goals are to be Businessman of the Year and have Holling take over his architecture firm, a sister who wants to be a flowerchild, yellow tights with feathers on the butt, and cream puffs. Best YA book of the year? Well, it's great, but holding me back is a scene where Holling is literally chased across the schoolyard by a couple of rats. Most of this book made me laugh out loud, but that scene made me go, "Oh, come on!"]

STARTED:

Sanchez, Alex. (2004). So hard to say. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Another one for gay youngsters from the guy who did the Rainbow series of books.]

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