The Wednesday Wars

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What is the significance of Holling’s family home being in the center of town?

A) Everything in the town revolves around Holling’s family.

B) Holling’s “Perfect House” being in the center of town is an allusion to the phrase “perfect center.”

C) Holling’s house is in the middle of a no man’s land; nobody will claim it, just like Holling having no friends at school or at home.

D) Almost everyone in town is either Jewish or Catholic and they live separate, but Holling’s family is neither.

2. What is the significance of Holling’s father’s nickname for their house?

A) The house is a model of perfection, which will help his architecture firm gain more customers.

B) Holling’s father is a perfect person and he wants his house to be an exact representation of him.

C) Holling’s father wants everything to be perfect, including his family; the house name helps him to project that image into the community.

D) Holling’s family leans into imperfection and flaws. 

3. Which would be the least upsetting to Holling’s father?

A) Heather becoming a flower child

B) Mr. Kowalski losing the bid to design the junior high school

C) Holling missing all his lines in The Tempest.

D) The New York Yankees going to the World Series in 1968

4. In Holling’s mind, which character is most like Shylock in that they are misunderstood, cold-hearted, and feel trapped by other people’s expectations of them?

A) Mrs. Bigio

B) His mother

C) His father

D) Doug Swieteck’s brother

5. Why are Sunday afternoons the only time “left over for full baseball teams”? (September)

A) Everyone is at church or various religious services during all the other parts of the weekend.

B) The town hosts historical tours that the children participate in for extra credit.

C) Baseball violates the town’s noise ordinances, which are only waived on Sunday afternoons.

D) In honor of the ongoing war in Vietnam, everyone takes a break from leisure as a collective “moment of silence.”

6. What does Holling mean when he says, “when gods die, they die hard”? (December)

A) Life is difficult to navigate without faith and religion.

B) Holling has lost respect for his father and his sister.

C) Losing respect for a hero is difficult for Holling and his friends.

D) Mrs. Baker is losing hope for her husband’s safety in Vietnam.

7. Which words best characterize Holling’s father?

A) Vengeful, cold, calculating

B) Lost, opportunist, perfectionist

C) Decisive, fierce, strong

D) Loving, calculating, vengeful

8. How are Holling and Meryl Lee different from Romeo and Juliet?

A) They come from rival families.

B) They come from somewhat wealthy families.

C) They fall in love with one another at a young age.

D) They have been friends all along.

9. Which plot scenario is the strongest example of Coming of Age Amid National Events and Social Influences?

A) Holling’s first date

B) Heather running away to California to find herself

C) Mickey Mantle choosing not to sign Holling’s baseball because he is wearing tights

D) Holling beating the eighth graders in his first cross-country race

10. What is the significance of Schmidt waiting until May to reveal Holling’s sister’s name?

A) After almost losing his sister, Holling realizes how important she is.

B) Heather moves from a background character in the novel’s plot to an important one.

C) Holling hates his sister so much that he never says her name or writes it down.

D) Her name appears in a funny headline in the local paper.

11. Which literary technique or device helps Schmidt create a strong narrative voice in Holling Hoodhood?

A) Humor

B) Allusion

C) Juxtaposition

D) Tragedy

12. What literary techniques are at work in January, where the chapter begins and ends with a picture of Holling flying through the air on the front of the newspaper?

A) Plot twist

B) Simile

C) Metaphor

D) Irony

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. Which “gods die” in December? How do Holling’s and the other character’s hopes eventually get restored?

2. Which moment in the novel best represents Holling’s transition to young adulthood?