Thalia Kids' Book Club: Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars

Two-time Newbery Medal-winner Gary Schmidt talks about the frequently comic mishaps and adventures of a 12-year-old Long Island boy in the Vietnam era.

“One of my favorite books of the year.”
—The New York Times


Download this program from Audible.com

Performance playlist:

Reading
Khris Lewin

Conversation
Gary Schmidt and Madeline Cohen

A Conversation with the Audience

Khris Lewin is about to begin rehearsals to play Cyrano at Theatreworks in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Recent work includes world premieres such as Deb Margolin's Time Is the Mercy of Eternity with Lisa Kron at the West End Theatre, and Stomp and Shout! at the 45th Street Theatre. His other work in New York includes a new Charles Mee play, Fêtes de la Nuit; the American premiere of Robin Soan's Talking to Terrorists for the Culture Project; Better Angels; Richard Caliban's Teatro Slovak; a new translation of Brecht's Private Life of the Master Race; and Happy Endings with Blue Coyote Theater Group. His film work includes the independent shorts The Eyes Have It, First Date, and the recurring character Jim Cramer on wallstrip.com.

Gary D. Schmidt is the author of the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. A native of Long Island, his most recent novel, The Wednesday Wars, explores the life of a seventh grader growing up in the 1960's outside of the city, an experience which he says mirrors his own life, except that "the real Ms. Baker never came to like me." A father of six, Gary Schmidt, his wife, and their family live in a 150-year-old farm house near Grand Rapids, Michigan where he is a professor of English at Calvin College.

Madeline Cohen has been Symphony Space's Education Director since 1989. She directs the Curriculum Arts Project (CAP) Program, which gives thousands of students insight into the social studies curriculum through interaction with the arts and artists in the classroom, at museums and at Peter Norton Symphony Space. She co-organizes Symphony Space's All Write! program for adult literacy students, modeled after Symphony Space's series Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story.