TY  - BOOK
AU  - Schmidt,Gary D.
TI  - Just like that
SN  - 9780544084773
U1  - FIC SCH 
KW  - Grief
KW  - Juvenile fiction
KW  - Grief in children
KW  - Death
KW  - Preparatory schools
KW  - Gangs
KW  - Theft
KW  - Social classes
KW  - Friendship
KW  - Loneliness
KW  - Loneliness in children
KW  - Teenagers
KW  - Maine
N1  - Grades 5+
N2  - With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in summer 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students from wealthy backgrounds. In a parallel story, Matt Coffin has wound up on the Maine coast near St. Elene's with a pillowcase full of money lifted from the leader of a criminal gang, fearing the gang's relentless, destructive pursuit. Both young people gradually dispel their loneliness, finding a way to be hopeful and also finding each other
ER  -