JUST LIKE THAT by Gary Schmidt

 

Just Like that by Gary Schmidt

Historical Fiction (United States, Vietnam War)

 Grief, Loss, Humor

387 pages

"The well-phrased writing is understated, endlessly 

engaging, and sometimes suspenseful or amusing."

 (Booklist)

Description

Booklist starred (September 1, 2020 (Vol. 117, No. 1))

Grades 6-8. It’s the summer of 1968. The accidental death of a dear friend

has blindsided Meryl Lee, and grief still overwhelms her at times. Unable to 

face her old school for eighth grade, she enrolls at St. Elene’s Preparatory 

Academy in Maine, where she initially feels isolated from her pretentious 

roommate and other classmates. From the start, she’s intrigued by the strong,

 enigmatic headmistress, Dr. MacKnockater, who seems to understand so much

and whose opening address unexpectedly mesmerizes and challenges Meryl Lee. 

Slowly, she begins to find her way and tentatively makes friends 

while navigating boarding-school life under the watchful eyes 

of her inscrutable teachers. 

Meanwhile, Matt has arrived in the area. A good-hearted, vulnerable boy on the run 

from his sometimes-violent past, he’s befriended by Dr. MacKnockater, who takes 

him in and gradually gains his trust. The Vietnam War isn’t just the story’s backdrop,

but an inescapable, unsettling element of the times, painfully affecting several characters. 

The well-phrased writing is understated, endlessly engaging, and sometimes suspenseful

 or amusing. While fans of Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars (2007) and Lizzie Bright 

and the Buckminster Boy (2004) will find links to both stories here, this well-constructed 

novel, with its beautifully interwoven strands of narrative, stands on its own. An 

unforgettable story of loss, healing, and finding one’s way.

PAX by Sara Pennypacker

 

PAX by Sara Pennypacker

Fiction, Animal-Human Relationships, War

Description

Hornbook

“Peter and his pet fox have been inseparable since Peter rescued Pax as a kit. Now Peter’s father has enlisted, and there’s no room at Grandfather’s house (where the boy will be staying) for a fox, tame or otherwise; Peter’s father forces his son to release Pax into the wild. Heartsick, Peter soon decides to run away to find Pax. He stumbles onto the land of a woman named Vola, a hermit who reluctantly helps the boy regain his strength after an injury and whose own tragic backstory gradually emerges. Omniscient third-person chapters alternate between Peter’s story and that of Pax, who falls in with a young vixen, her fox-kit brother, and an aging alpha who takes Pax under his protection as the fox tries to find his boy. Pennypacker’s setting is stark, the details of time and place intentionally murky, with occasional textured black-and-white illustrations by Klassen playing up scenes both ordinary-seeming (a boy in a baseball dugout) and subtly menacing (flowers trampled into the ground). “Just because it isn’t happening here doesn’t mean it isn’t happening” reads the book’s epigraph, and readers are kept off-balance throughout as soldiers, including Peter’s father, amass and prepare for an unnamed war against unidentified combatants that’s poised to take place practically in Peter’s backyard. An emotional, thought-provoking story of conflict, loyalty, and love. elissa gershowitz”

My Comments

This is a timeless book set in a timeless place. It can be read on many levels depending on the reader. Don't let the adorable cover fool you; this is a book that addresses loss, anger, moral responsibility towards animals, human's place on earth, respect, and love. One of my absolute all time favorites. Highly recommended through 8th grade for independent reading or classroom discussion. It's also a not long and it's a page turner!

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF AIDAN S. (as told by his brother) by David Levithan

 

Fantasy, 215 pages

Description

Publishers Weekly starred (January 4, 2021)

It’s great to step into a magical wardrobe and be transported to a fantastic world, but what happens when you come back? Returning from a magical place called Aveinieu with a royal blue leaf in his hair, 12-year-old Aidan finds he’s been missing for six days, his inexplicable disappearance resulting in a massive, town-wide search as well as endless police questioning of his family and best friend. But joy over his safe return quickly turns to unease about his inability to account for the time-Aidan knows he won’t be believed, and his exhausted parents don’t know whether to be worried or furious. His brother, 11-year-old Lucas, previously duped by Aidan’s fanciful stories, tries to catch him in inconsistencies in a brotherly arc that moves toward emotional support. Via Lucas’s urgent narration, Levithan (19 Love Songs) validates both Lucas’s real-world experience and Aidan’s post-portal mourning, telling a well-paced story about the collision of realities in the vein of Laura E. Weymouth and Seanan McGuire. Ages 8-12. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

My Comments

Magical and mysterious with a hint of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I love the relationship of the brothers.