Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

When unthinkable tragedy strikes, Meryl Lee Kowalski’s parents send her to a girls preparatory school while the war in Vietnam continues to rage overseas. Schmidt returns to Hicksville, Long Island, the setting of The Wednesday Wars (2007), but only briefly. A beloved friend—maybe more than a friend?—dies in a tragic accident, and Meryl Lee is consumed with grief that she terms the Blank. Unable to fathom returning to Camillo Junior High for her eighth grade year, Meryl Lee doesn’t protest when her parents decide to send her away to St. Elene’s Preparatory Academy for Girls in Maine. There, she is challenged by headmistress Dr. MacKnockater to discover what she will become accomplished in. Meryl Lee juggles this charge with navigating obstacles like snobby classmates and persnickety teachers, all the while trying to keep the Blank from overwhelming her. Meanwhile, Dr. MacKnockater takes in Matt Coffin, a mysterious boy whose dangerous past follows him everywhere he goes. Matt’s decidedly Dickensian storyline intersects with Meryl Lee’s as she makes friends in unlikely places and unwittingly begins to break down the classist social structures within St. Elene’s storied walls. Alternating between poignant moments of humor, melancholy, and occasional suspense, Schmidt's book sensitively explores the various ways grief has of bringing people together. Most characters are White. Offers solace and hard-earned hope in the face of heartbreaking loss. (Historical fiction. 10-14) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Losses suffered by two young people set in motion threads of fate that will ultimately tie them together. In June 1968, in Hicksville, Long Island, Meryl Lee Kowalski's closest friend, Holling (protagonist of The Wednesday Wars, rev. 7/07), is killed in a car crash, and her parents send her away for a fresh start at St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls on the coast of Maine. In a parallel narrative, Matt Coffin has fled New York City with a pillowcase full of money stolen from Leonidas Shug, an evil, Fagin-like leader of a gang of street criminals who killed Matt's friend. After the loss of her friend, Meryl Lee feels that "everything in the world became a Blank," a dark hole that threatens to suck her in. In the same town, Matt has holed up in a lobsterman's shack, but he realizes that he cannot escape his past, as Shug is in pursuit, leaving a trail of arson and mayhem in his wake. Meryl Lee's and Matt's stories eventually converge through the actions of St. Elene's wise and compassionate headmistress, who offers them both the refuge they seek. Schmidt nimbly weaves a story of good and evil, loss and gain, home and heart. He writes like a modern-day Dickens; at one point, Meryl Lee says that "there are times when words can't do what you want them to do," but Schmidt can, and this is a masterwork of old-fashioned storytelling. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Losses suffered by two young people set in motion threads of fate that will ultimately tie them together. In June 1968, in Hicksville, Long Island, Meryl Lee Kowalski's closest friend, Holling (protagonist of The Wednesday Wars, rev. 7/07), is killed in a car crash, and her parents send her away for a fresh start at St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls on the coast of Maine. In a parallel narrative, Matt Coffin has fled New York City with a pillowcase full of money stolen from Leonidas Shug, an evil, Fagin-like leader of a gang of street criminals who killed Matt's friend. After the loss of her friend, Meryl Lee feels that "everything in the world became a Blank," a dark hole that threatens to suck her in. In the same town, Matt has holed up in a lobsterman's shack, but he realizes that he cannot escape his past, as Shug is in pursuit, leaving a trail of arson and mayhem in his wake. Meryl Lee's and Matt's stories eventually converge through the actions of St. Elene's wise and compassionate headmistress, who offers them both the refuge they seek. Schmidt nimbly weaves a story of good and evil, loss and gain, home and heart. He writes like a modern-day Dickens; at one point, Meryl Lee says that "there are times when words can't do what you want them to do," but Schmidt can, and this is a masterwork of old-fashioned storytelling. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.