Book Review: Just Like That by Gary Schmidt

Just Like That

by Gary Schmidt (j Schmidt)

 

The cover art doesn’t do justice to Just Like That. It’s funny. It’s serious. It’s suspenseful. It’s a little of everything you might want in a middle-school drama.

 

Just Like That takes place in the late 60s, when young people are questioning the norm and attempting to bring about change during the Vietnam War.

 

The happy part of Meryl Lee Kowalski’s life has been taken from her. Her best friend is in a car accident and he dies before she can get to the hospital to say goodbye. And then she starts to sense The Blank: a dizzying white hole in her life that sometimes is so overwhelming she feels as if she will fall in and not find her way back out. To give her a change of scenery for her eighth grade year, her parents ship her off to a Maine boarding school, the prestigious St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls in 1968.

 

There Meryl encounters new challenges: fitting in, learning taste and discernment, and surviving field hockey. St. Elene’s caters to the wealthy and elite, and Meryl witnesses a good deal of classism and snobbery from classmates, as well as teachers. Take, for example, her literature class. Meryl is tasked with finding a literary classic. She wishes to read the Wizard of Oz, but her teacher is skeptical it is worthy. Teacher Connolly scathingly tells her, “You have not made a good beginning, developing taste and discernment through reading L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. You may try, but I would advise you to consider the plight of the Scarecrow.”

 

Thankfully Meryl finds unlikely allies at her new school. First is Headmistress Nora MacKnockater. She challenges Meryl to discover what she will be accomplished in, helping her grow and combat The Blank. Another ally is Matt Coffin. It’s hard to tell if he is 13 or 14. Matt manages an existence, hiding away from society and living on his own in an old lobster shack. He attempts to evade everyone. At least he intends to, until he is befriended and taken in by Headmistress MacKnockater. But it is a fragile friendship. In the past his friendships have caused those he cares about to be stabbed, beaten almost to death, and had their business blown up. Therefore, he must continue to evade trouble so the past that’s bent to find him won’t be the end of him.

 

By the close of the book, both Meryl and Matt are able to face their challenges, aided by their new friends and allies. In fact, they change St. Elene’s and their lives for the better. I found Just Like That to be a rewarding read, teaching that silence is not always golden and there is power in redemption.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Sea in Winter by Christine Day, or In a Flash by Donna Jo Napoli.]

[ publisher’s official Just Like That web page] | [ publisher’s official Gary Schmidt web site ]

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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