The Wednesday Wars

by

Gary Schmidt

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Wednesday Wars makes teaching easy.
Mrs. Baker is Holling's seventh grade teacher at Camillo Junior High School. As a teacher, she's demanding and, according to her students, soulless: she refuses to allow her students to decorate the classroom for the holidays, and she regularly either refuses or delays treats for her class. Holling believes that Mrs. Baker hates him because he's the only Presbyterian student and therefore, he spends his Wednesday afternoons with her alone instead of attending religious study like his Jewish and Catholic classmates. Mrs. Baker is an ardent lover of Shakespeare and other classic literature; she believes that Shakespeare wrote about the human condition in a way rivaled by no other writer. During her Wednesday afternoons with Holling, Mrs. Baker manages to pass on her love of Shakespeare to him. Over time, Mrs. Baker demonstrates that she doesn't hate Holling at all and, in fact, eventually becomes a parental figure for him. Though she does care deeply about academics, she also understands the importance of connecting with her students through things that are important to them, which leads her to arrange for Doug, Holling, and Danny to play baseball with the Yankees players Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke. Mrs. Baker's husband, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker, is in Vietnam for much of the novel. Mrs. Baker clearly loves and cares for her husband; Holling watches her anxiously scan news footage of soldiers in Vietnam looking for her husband, and he watches her emotionally receive telegrams informing her first that Lieutenant Baker is lost and, later, found again. With this, Holling learns to truly humanize Mrs. Baker and see her as a teacher, personal mentor, and friend.

Mrs. Baker Quotes in The Wednesday Wars

The The Wednesday Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Baker or refer to Mrs. Baker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age Theme Icon
).
September Quotes

"So, Holling, what did you do that might make Mrs. Baker hate your guts, which will make other Baker family members hate the name of Hoodhood, which will lead the Baker Sporting Emporium to choose another architect, which will kill the deal for Hoodhood and Associates […]”

Related Characters: Holling's Dad (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
November Quotes

I was amazed that Mrs. Baker was letting me read this. It's got to be censored all over the place. I figured that she hadn't read it herself, otherwise she would never have let me at it.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

Everyone—except for Caliban—is happy, and everyone is forgiven, and everyone is fine, and they all sail away on calm seas. Happy endings.

That's how it is in Shakespeare.

But Shakespeare was wrong.

Sometimes there isn't a Prospero to make everything fine again.

And sometimes the quality of mercy is strained.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Bigio, Mai Thi
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
December Quotes

But Doug went on in, and he came back out carrying the cardboard box for Number 166 from the Coat Room. He looked at us, shrugged, and hauled it away down the hall, staggering under its clumsy weight.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Danny Hupfer, Doug Swieteck, Horace Clarke , Joe Pepitone
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
January Quotes

When Mrs. Baker came back, her face was set and hard. "Your father has spoken over the phone with the nurse at the front desk. He has given approval for any necessary procedure, and says that, since everything seems under control, he will be along as soon as may be convenient."

Related Characters: Mrs. Baker (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Holling's Dad, Mr. Guareschi
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
March Quotes

It also didn't help that Mrs. Baker kept wiping at her eyes during her grading. She'd told us that she had a terrible cold, but she hardly needed to tell us. Her eyes were mostly red all the time, and the way she blew her nose could be pretty impressive. Sometimes while sitting at her desk, she'd just stop doing whatever she was doing and look somewhere far away, like she wasn't even in the classroom anymore.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:

"It was for the women's four-by-one hundred relay. Don't look so surprised. You didn't think I'd spent my whole life behind this desk, did you?"

And I suddenly realized that, well, I guess I had. Weren't all teachers born behind their desks, fully grown, with a red pen in their hand and ready to grade?

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker (speaker)
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
May Quotes

"Would you mind not calling me 'Mr. Hoodhood'? It sounds like you're talking to my father."

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Holling's Dad
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
June Quotes

I could tell that Mrs. Baker was wanting to try it. It was probably getting hot on the open rocks above the falls, with the sun coming straight down now […]

It's got to be hard to be a teacher all the time and not jump into a pool of clear water and come up laughing and snorting with water up your nose.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Wednesday Wars PDF

Mrs. Baker Quotes in The Wednesday Wars

The The Wednesday Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Baker or refer to Mrs. Baker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age Theme Icon
).
September Quotes

"So, Holling, what did you do that might make Mrs. Baker hate your guts, which will make other Baker family members hate the name of Hoodhood, which will lead the Baker Sporting Emporium to choose another architect, which will kill the deal for Hoodhood and Associates […]”

Related Characters: Holling's Dad (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
November Quotes

I was amazed that Mrs. Baker was letting me read this. It's got to be censored all over the place. I figured that she hadn't read it herself, otherwise she would never have let me at it.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

Everyone—except for Caliban—is happy, and everyone is forgiven, and everyone is fine, and they all sail away on calm seas. Happy endings.

That's how it is in Shakespeare.

But Shakespeare was wrong.

Sometimes there isn't a Prospero to make everything fine again.

And sometimes the quality of mercy is strained.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Bigio, Mai Thi
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
December Quotes

But Doug went on in, and he came back out carrying the cardboard box for Number 166 from the Coat Room. He looked at us, shrugged, and hauled it away down the hall, staggering under its clumsy weight.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Danny Hupfer, Doug Swieteck, Horace Clarke , Joe Pepitone
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
January Quotes

When Mrs. Baker came back, her face was set and hard. "Your father has spoken over the phone with the nurse at the front desk. He has given approval for any necessary procedure, and says that, since everything seems under control, he will be along as soon as may be convenient."

Related Characters: Mrs. Baker (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Holling's Dad, Mr. Guareschi
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
March Quotes

It also didn't help that Mrs. Baker kept wiping at her eyes during her grading. She'd told us that she had a terrible cold, but she hardly needed to tell us. Her eyes were mostly red all the time, and the way she blew her nose could be pretty impressive. Sometimes while sitting at her desk, she'd just stop doing whatever she was doing and look somewhere far away, like she wasn't even in the classroom anymore.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:

"It was for the women's four-by-one hundred relay. Don't look so surprised. You didn't think I'd spent my whole life behind this desk, did you?"

And I suddenly realized that, well, I guess I had. Weren't all teachers born behind their desks, fully grown, with a red pen in their hand and ready to grade?

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker (speaker)
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
May Quotes

"Would you mind not calling me 'Mr. Hoodhood'? It sounds like you're talking to my father."

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Holling's Dad
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
June Quotes

I could tell that Mrs. Baker was wanting to try it. It was probably getting hot on the open rocks above the falls, with the sun coming straight down now […]

It's got to be hard to be a teacher all the time and not jump into a pool of clear water and come up laughing and snorting with water up your nose.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis: