Gary D. Schmidt was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2008 for The Wednesday Wars, the story of the seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood from suburban Long Island in 1967 who is stuck spending his Wednesday afternoons with his teacher Mrs. Baker . . . who is clearly trying to kill him with Shakespeare. As time rolls on, Shakespeare starts to grow on Holling, and even when he's not playing the yellow-tighted role of the fairy Ariel, he can't help but hurl the occasional Elizabethan insult. Laugh-out-loud scenes involving overfed escaped classroom rats and chalk-dusted cream puffs mix seamlessly with more poignant moments, some related to the Vietnam War. Holling is courageous, funny, and unique, and readers will love seeing him evolve beyond the expectations of others to become his own fabulous self.