JUST LIKE THAT

Narrator Leah Horowitz allows listeners to bask in the rhythms of Schmidt's writing and be moved by the story of two vulnerable teens. Meryl Lee is grieving the death of her best friend after his sudden accident. Horowitz embodies the lonely-lost feelings Meryl Lee labels "The Blank" so clearly that listeners feel her deeper hurt when her parents send her away to a school where the girls around her seem pretentious. Horowitz describes a different view of this feeling in Meryl Lee's friend Matt, who is fleeing a violent past. The uniting figure in this story is Dr. MacKnockater, a teacher at Meryl Lee's school who takes in Matt. Horowitz gets her Scottish accent, wisdom, strength, and kindness just right. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2021]