This small book has 121 pages of stories that were told in and about the concentration camps. Stories that capture the heart and imagination of the listener. Stories that show a kind of resistance to darkness, a fierce clinging to all that makes us human, and a celebration of life. Gary D. Schmidt did extensive research on primary sources from folklorists, Jewish religious scholars, and Holocaust survivors. Some of the stories are happy and some are sad. Some are historical or biblical and some are about the moment right then. But each captures the essence of the people in that time and that place. And each reminds us of how to live – even when we are in the darkest night of our soul.

I discovered that this book was available on Audible. Because my ears work better than my eyes, I began this journey with the audiobook. It was incredible! I listened twice. The narrator is absolute perfection, and when I reached for the picture book, her voice remained in my head and helped me to read this story as it should be. This allowed me to really pause and linger over the illustration by David Minter. Listening to my memory of the narrator, I was able to really see the pictures and know that they were very good.

ust Like That is hard. Not Okay For Now hard, but hard. It is also lovely. And tearful. And sweet. Typical Gary D. Schmidt, it has several key literary influences that are obvious, but it also reminds me of things that are not mentioned in the text. Diane and I both thought that this one had strong roots in Oliver Twist and maybe a little bit of David Copperfield. I also felt like it reminded me of the Anne of Green Gables books and the Kevin Sullivan mini-series – “Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel,” specifically the Kingsport Ladies College scenes. While this one can absolutely be read as a standalone, it makes sense to have at least read The Wednesday Wars so that you know who Meryl Lee is.

“Time was like a fishing line that gets all caught in the reel, looping back into itself and tangling into knots that are forever. And the days’ stories were all knitted in tangles, so that I could hardly remember one day from another.” No one who has read Gary D. Schmidt’s novels or our previous…

Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt is a powerful and challenging story about racism and grief. Relatively modern (it seems to be set in the 1970s or 1980s judging by the prices of things in the diner), it reads like a modern book but not like The Wednesday Wars or even Pay Attention Carter Jones. Maybe this one is most similar to Just Like That (review coming soon), but even then it is considerably different. Instead of mixing humor and middle school antics with deep questions of identity, this one is rarely funny, and very little of it feels like middle school.

“Doug Swieteck once made up a list of 410 ways to get a teacher to hate you. It began with ‘Spray deodorant in all her desk drawers’ and got worse as it went along. A whole lot worse. . . . They were the kinds of things that sent kids to juvenile detention homes in…

So, when I discovered that Gary D. Schmidt had written another modern book featuring the grown-up versions of Danny Hupfer and Mai Thi, I was curious and eager to give it a try. My kids have asked me which of his is my favorite. It might be this one. This one was a delight to read, and an invitation to sob all at the same time. I laughed, and I cried, and I enjoyed every bit of it. This book is hard, but not like Okay For Now. This book is creative. And, it is brilliant. There. I said it. I think that Gary D. Schmidt is brilliant. (And, I am not lying.)

I’m sure I would never have picked up Gary D. Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars if Sara Masarik hadn’t asked me to read it. And normally, if I’m two thirds of the way through a book and still not into it, I’m not going to finish. But I said I would, so I did. And then…