ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
OLDER FICTION
Schmidt, Gary D.

Just like That

400 pp. | Clarion | January, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-544-08477-3 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-544-08455-1 $9.99
(2) YA Losses suffered by two young people set in motion threads of fate that will ultimately tie them together. In June 1968, in Hicksville, Long Island, Meryl Lee Kowalski's closest friend, Holling (protagonist of The Wednesday Wars, rev. 7/07), is killed in a car crash, and her parents send her away for a fresh start at St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls on the coast of Maine. In a parallel narrative, Matt Coffin has fled New York City with a ­pillowcase full of money stolen from Leonidas Shug, an evil, Fagin-like leader of a gang of street criminals who killed Matt's friend. After the loss of her friend, Meryl Lee feels that "everything in the world became a Blank," a dark hole that threatens to suck her in. In the same town, Matt has holed up in a lobsterman's shack, but he realizes that he cannot escape his past, as Shug is in pursuit, leaving a trail of arson and mayhem in his wake. Meryl Lee's and Matt's stories eventually converge through the actions of St. Elene's wise and compassionate headmistress, who offers them both the refuge they seek. Schmidt nimbly weaves a story of good and evil, loss and gain, home and heart. He writes like a modern-day Dickens; at one point, Meryl Lee says that "there are times when words can't do what you want them to do," but Schmidt can, and this is a masterwork of old-fashioned storytelling.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

RELATED 

OLDER FICTION

What Beauty There Is
by Anderson, Cory
OLDER FICTION

Between Perfect and Real
by Stoeve, Ray
OLDER FICTION

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good
by Werlin, Nancy
OLDER FICTION

Home Is Not a Country
by Elhillo, Safia
OLDER FICTION

All Our Hidden Gifts
by O'Donoghue, Caroline
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?