Just Like That by Gary D. Schmidt*

 Meryl Lee's (from Mr. Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars) best friend dies suddenly.  Life has lost its meaning.  The Blank seems to hover, threatening to consume her.  Her parents decide to send her to a boarding school in Maine.  

Matt Coffin is on the run.  Shug always gets his man.  Matt has something to belongs to him.  Wherever a kind soul "adopts" Matt, the place is destroyed, and sometimes the person who harbored him is harmed.  

Meryl Lee and Matt begin to find friendship and hope together and as individuals.  

I loved reading this book.  The setting and characters are well-developed and the plot kept me devouring the pages.  Although Meryl Lee and Matt are in eighth grade, some aspects may not be appropriate for junior high (see warning section).

The setting is the same area as Schmidt's Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster's Boy.  Some of those characters' relatives appear in this book! In fact I borrowed Lizzie Bright again from the library so I could trace the characters' ancestries!  I really like how Mr. Schmidt integrates his characters into other his books.  

One aspect that bothered me was how the characters who were more conservative politically were portrayed negatively. The reader will naturally like the  characters that  lean towards the Democratic and liberal beliefs.  Darwin's Origin of Species is mentioned again (just in a couple of sentences).  

I have not read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. It was mentioned throughout the book (Meryl Lee reads it several times.  One teacher at the prep school insists it is lewd.  Everyone who reads it, however, claims they cannot find any "lewd" parts.). 

*Highly recommend (but read the "warning/points to discuss" section).

-Borrowed from the library.

Warnings/points to dicuss: divorce, boys are taken in as "slaves"-taught to steal for a mob, graphic violence, Vietnam War, death, comment about Scottish men "not wearing anything under their kilts", Meryl Lee and Matt kiss throughout the book (just on the cheek or it is just stated-"they kissed"), a couple of swear words