The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

From Goodreads:

Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn't like Holling—he's sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.

I was worried about choosing my first post Catching Fire book. After you read something that really absorbs you and is just really well done it's hard to go on and read something fluffy or mediocre. You want something just as awesome.

It's a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but The Wednesday Wars is just as awesome. I'd heard lots of good things about it but still had to make myself pick it up. For some reason, the blurb just didn't capture me and I wasn't excited about reading it. But so many glowing reviews couldn't be wrong and by ten pages in I was hooked and I couldn't put it down.

The story has a perfect mix of silly 7th grade antics and touching coming-of-age type experiences mixed with all the wonderful volatility of the 60s. There's Shakespeare and Vietnam and escaped classroom pets and Bobby Kennedy and first love and the falling of heroes and Martin Luther King Jr. and the horror of being seen by the whole school while wearing yellow tights with feathers on the bum. There is so so much good stuff in this book and I laughed and cried and laughed and cried some more.

The Wednesday Wars just easily marched itself into a well deserved spot in my top 10 favorite books.