Parents do not come off well in Gary Schmidt's books, whether they are absent physically (as in First Boy) or emotionally (Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy). But that makes Schmidt's young heroes even more admirable for the challenges they overcome. Holling Hoodhood is neither Jewish nor Catholic, so when everyone else leaves his Long Island classroom on Wednesday afternoons in 1967 for their religious instruction, he remains behind with his seventh-grade teacher, Mrs. Baker. Thus begin the "wars" of the title. On those afternoons, he cleans erasers and rat cages, each chore precipitating disasters of varying degrees, often with a large dose of humor. One day Mrs. Baker decides they should read Shakespeare together, which leads to unexpected epiphanies for both student and teacher. The events play out against the backdrop of a much larger war--in Vietnam. No one remains untouched. Teachers' spouses are MIA, Holling's flower child sister defies their conservative architect father, classmate Mai Thi gets the brunt of smoldering anger and resentment, and, in the course of the novel, both Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are murdered. Adults will recognize the parallels between that era and this one, but Schmidt's emphasis is on healing. This 12-year-old grows up in front of readers' eyes. Holling may be living through a defining period in history, but he also realizes, with the help of the Bard and Mrs. Baker, that he can act, with a conscience, in the moment. He even realizes, in one highly moving scene, that such moments have always defined both countries and their citizens: His own townspeople, he discovers, contributed to the beginning of a nation and the end of slavery. This is a book readers must stick with; it begins slowly and deliberately. But the payoff is greater than one can foresee. Like Holling, who says, "I saw my town as if I had just arrived," readers will come away with a reverence for the people and places they have always taken for granted.--Jennifer M. Brown