So there's a loosely connected book series by Gary D. Schmidt

[conuly]

Each book can be read totally independent of the others, but they have some characters and a time period in common.

The Wednesday Wars won the award, but interestingly it's always Okay For Now that people search up at /r/whatsthatbook. You'd think it'd be because of the protagonist's illiteracy, or his amazingly abusive father, or even the tattoo his abusive father forced him to get - but no, it's always the Audobon drawings that they remember.

Anyway, there's a new one out, Just Like That. And this book starts off, right away, with the revelation that shortly after the events of the first book, the protagonist of that book died in a senseless car crash. If you ask me, that's a hell of a way to start a book! The first protagonist of this book spends her time trying to cope with the loss.

Worth a read, though I don't think the second protagonist's story holds up if you think about it. Sometime at the age of 4-ish he wounded up with a group of criminals Fagin-ing it up. I can see it if they all were adolescents when they got caught up in this, or if there were only one or two small children, but the scenario as written seems improbable for 1960s America. Not impossible, but... improbable. But I wasn't alive then, and I'm not a career criminal, so what do I know?

Comments

[readerjane]

(Shielding my eyes from spoilers.) I loved The Wednesday Wars. Will have to check out the other titles. Thanks for mentioning them.

[miladygrey]

I read the first two pages of Just Like That, and had to shut the book and say out loud "How. How can you do this to me, how." The shock of it definitely helped me empathize with the protagonist, but that was a kick in the teeth.

[conuly]

Yeah.