Tuesday Wars Themes

Some adults can have a mentoring role in a child’s life. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D Schmidt is a novel about Holling Hoodhood’s seventh grade year. In the story Holling is always told by his father how to act so he can inherit the family business, Hoodhood and Associates. When Holling has Mrs. Baker as a teacher he must be nice because Hoodhood and Associates wants to win a bid for her families sporting business. Holling starts to read Shakespeare with Mrs. Baker and begins to see the world around him differently. In this novel Mrs. Baker acts as more of a parental figure to Holling than his own parents. Mr. Hoodhood, Holling’s father is an absent parent and cares more about his business and reputation than his children. At first, when

Baker has a more parental role than Holling’s father. When Holling gets hit by a bus, Mrs. Baker takes him to the hospital when his father does not come. She is helping Holling and showing she cares while his father does not come to see if he is ok. Mrs. Baker did not have to do this yet she did anyway. Later in the story Holling is practicing for cross-country tryouts. When Mrs. Baker sees Holling run she starts to coach him so he will get better. Holling thanks her saying, “Mrs. Baker, you helped a lot with my running.” This shows that Mrs. Baker cares for Holling and will help him with things that are important to him. Mr. Hoodhood was only concerned with helping Holling become a better architect and take over the business. Mrs. Baker also uses her connections with the Yankees to set up a meet with Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke for Holling, Danny, and Doug. This results in them getting tickets to opening day at Yankee Stadium. Holling waits throughout the day but his father never comes to pick him up and bring him to the game. Instead, Mrs. Baker drives him to Yankee Stadium so he can still see the game. “Mr. Hoodhood, I think I could get you up there for some of the game. Call your mother and see if it’s all right.” Mrs. Baker does this because she knows it was important to Holling. She had no selfish reasons for doing what she does to help and support Holling. On the other hand, Mr. Hoodhood does not seem to care about what is important to Holling and always puts his business before his