Three months ago, Gary D. Schmidt learned that his latest youth novel, The Wednesday Wars, had won a coveted Newbery Honor. This is the Calvin College Professor of English's second such award. He previously won it for Lizzie Bright, a finely crafted and beautifully phrased story of friendship and courage drawn against racial bigotry. Sprinkled profanity and a brave, but ultimately unsatisfying attempt to be fully human from an evolutionary worldview make this work not appropriate for our younger students. But, I ask you, where else is a kid going to learn the adjective "hugger-mugger"? (Yes, it is in the dictionary.) Quality = 5; Acceptability = varies with age of reader.
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