Reading is my ESCAPE from Reality!

Holling Hoodhood is really in for it. He's just started seventh grade with Mrs. Baker, a teacher he knows it out to get him. Why else would she make him read Shakespeare . . . outside of class?

The year is 1967, and everyone has bigger things to worry about. There's Vietnam for one thing, and then there's the family business. As far as Holling's father is concerned, nothing is more important than the family business. In fact, all the Hoodhoods must be on their best behavior at all times. The success of Hoodhood and Associates depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has Mrs. Baker to contend with?

-from the back cover

This was one of my son's summer reading books (he is going into 7th grade). His school just read The Tempest last year and Holling was reading it for the first part of this book. So, my son "got" a lot of the Shakespeare references and he even knew how to pronounce the rats' names (Sycorax & Caliban). I had no idea how to pronounce them.

I felt sorry for Holling. His parents didn't seem to care much about anything he did. They didn't show up for any event he was involved in. His father was more concerned with his business and having the "perfect house" than anything else. Mrs. Baker (Holling's teacher) ended up being more of a parent to him than his parents.

This was a good historical fiction story about a boy growing up in the era of Vietnam and dealing with growing up issues in 7th grade.

Recommended to:

Middle grade students who like historical fiction or stories about growing up (especially boys - MC is a boy).