SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: ONE SMART SHEEP
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Alto
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 354
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/faculty/schmidt/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Schmidt http://www.hmhbooks.com/schmidt/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 14, 1957, in Hicksville, NY; son of Robert H. (a bank vice president) and Jeanne A. (a teacher) Schmidt; married Anne E. Stickney (a writer), December 22, 1979; children: James, Kathleen, Rebecca, David, Margaret, Benjamin.
EDUCATION:Gordon College, B.A., 1979; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1985.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and educator. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, professor of English, beginning 1985, department head, 1991-97.
AVOCATIONS:Gardening.
MEMBER:Children’s Literature Association, Early English Text Society, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Chi.
AWARDS:Honorable mention selection, Book Award Committee, Children’s Literature Association, 1993, for Robert McCloskey; Best Books for Young Adults citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1997, for The Sin Eater; Newbery Honor Book designation, ALA, Michael L. Printz Honor Book designation, ALA, and Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book designation, all 2005, all for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; Newbery Honor Book designation, 2008, for The Wednesday Wars; Michigan Author Award, Michigan Library Association, 2011; National Book Award in Young People’s Literature finalist, National Book Foundation, 2011, for Okay for Now.
RELIGION: Christian Reformed.WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Text and Matter: New Critical Perspectives of the Pearl Poet, edited by Robert J. Blanch, Miriam Miller, and Julian Wasserman, Whitston (Troy, NY), 1991. Contributor of articles, essays, stories, poems, and reviews to periodicals, including Christian Educators Journal, Christian Home and School, Lion and the Unicorn, Martha’s KidLit Newsletter, and Studies in American Humor. Guest editor, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 1989.
Several of Schmidt’s works have been adapted for audiobook, including Okay for Now, read by Lincoln Hope, Listening Library, 2011; and Orbiting Jupiter, read by Christopher Gebauer, Recorded Books, 2015.
SIDELIGHTS
UPDATE SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT.
Award-winning author Gary D. Schmidt has built a successful career in academia as well as working as an author and editor of both fiction and nonfiction. Earning appreciative fans ranging from children to adults, Schmidt has created picture-book texts in addition to writing novels and nonfiction works. His books for younger readers are often grounded in his strong Christian faith and include picture-book biographies such as Saint Ciaran: The Tale of a Saint of Ireland, Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, and So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk toward Freedom. Schmidt’s preteen fans enjoy a range of entertaining novels, among them Anson’s Way, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, Orbiting Jupiter, and Pay Attention, Carter Jones.
Schmidt grew up in suburban New York, and although he was a bookish child, he did not entertain dreams of becoming a writer. Finally arriving at college, he considered a career as a lawyer or a town manager but switched his major to English during his senior year. A doctorate in medieval literature led to a teaching job at Calvin College, a faith-based liberal arts institution located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Calvin was a perfect fit for Schmidt and his growing family, which eventually numbered six children. He worked full time at Calvin College, teaching children’s and young-adult literature full time until a diagnosis of lymphatic cancer in 1996 inspired him to rethink his priorities. Living in rural Michigan, Schmidt spends much of his non-farming time either doing the teaching he loves or pursuing the writing that draws on his creativity.
Schmidt wrote for adults until a project creating biographies on children’s writers resulted in his books Hugh Lofting and Robert McCloskey. As he once told SATA: “My first two children’s books, the retelling of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and my novel The Sin Eater, both came out of my own past. Pilgrim’s Progress had been with me some fifteen years before I finally turned to a retelling. It seemed to me that there were strong reasons why children would have turned this into a child’s story back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and I was not convinced that those reasons no longer pertained in the late twentieth century. I wrote the retelling thinking of my own early responses to the book, cutting out the parts that bored and that struck discordant notes.”
Schmidt’s retelling of Pilgrim’s Progress “is much more accessible than the original version,” noted School Library Journal contributor Kate Hegarty Bouman, and its “mix of both historical periods and ethnic groups is a fascinating way to extend the text spatially and temporally.” A reviewer in Publishers Weekly also praised the work, citing Schmidt’s “masterly rendition” of Bunyan’s classic as “a treasure sure to delight young and old.”
In Schmidt’s first middle-grade novel, The Sin Eater, he tapped his family history, which has roots in upper New York state, New Hampshire, and Cape Cod. In this story, middle schooler Cole and his father come to live with Cole’s maternal grandparents in rural New Hampshire after Cole’s mother dies of cancer. The boy delights in his new surroundings and in the village lore and tales of ancestry told him by his grandparents and other locals. His father, however, remains grief-stricken and ultimately commits suicide. “A work laden with atmosphere and meaning,” The Sin Eater “is a promising debut from an author who captures with admirable accuracy both the dark and light of life,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic. A Publishers Weekly reviewer also found Schmidt’s novel “engrossing,” adding that the plot forms a “point of departure for a profound and lyrical meditation on life and the importance of shared history.”
Based on actual events, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy earned honor citations from both the John Newbery and Michael L. Printz award juries. Set in 1912, Schmidt’s middle-grade novel centers on Turner Ernest Buckminster, III, the son of a minister in Phippsburg, Maine, and Turner’s unlikely friendship with Lizzie Bright Griffin. Lizzie lives on nearby Malaga Island, which was settled by former slaves. Fearful that this impoverished island community will hurt local tourism, the Phippsburg town elders force the island’s residents from their homes, despite the boy’s efforts to intervene. Writing in Booklist, Hazel Rochman called Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy a “haunting combination of fact and fiction that has a powerful and tragic climax,” and School Library Journal contributor Connie Tyrrell Burns predicted that Schmidt’s “novel will leave a powerful impression on readers.”
The Wednesday Wars is set in 1967 against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. In Schmidt’s story Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader whose mother and father are often neglectful. Due to his parents’ preference, Holling spends every Wednesday afternoon with his demanding teacher, Mrs. Baker, while his schoolmates attend religious classes. Student and teacher find common ground while reading the plays of William Shakespeare, and Mrs. Baker becomes a positive force in Holling’s life. Writing in Kliatt, Paula Rohrlick called The Wednesday Wars “a marvelous read, both achingly funny and deeply affecting,” and School Library Journal critic Joel Shoemaker stated that the author “explores many important themes, not the least of which is what makes a person a hero.”
Schmidt reprises the setting of The Wednesday Wars in Okay for Now, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is the summer of 1968 and fourteen-year-0ld Doug Swieteck’s abusive father has lost his job and relocated the family to the small, upstate New York town of Marysville. At first angry over the move, Doug’s feelings change when he is introduced to the work of celebrated nineteenth-century naturalist John James Audubon and forms a friendship with the local librarian, who helps him research Audubon’s work and inspires him to begin drawing. Doug’s efforts to locate some missing pictures from a precious Audubon album bring him into contact with other adults who provide a positive influence and a sense of hope for his future. In Horn Book, Betty Carter wrote that Doug’s “distinctive voice … reflects how one beat-up kid can become a young man who knows that the future holds” promise, while a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed Okay for Now “Schmidt’s best novel yet.”
Twelve-year-old Jack Hurd, Schmidt’s narrator in Orbiting Jupiter, shares the story of a slightly older foster boy named Joseph Brook. Recently released from a Maine juvenile detention facility, fourteen-year-old Joseph is placed with the Hurds, who have fostered several other troubled boys. Although the young teen’s experiences in detention were so horrific that he has been rendered almost mute, he soon trusts Jack enough to view him as a friend. Joseph’s dream is to locate his baby daughter, Jupiter, who is also in foster care. Hoping to shake off the ghosts of his past, Jack and Joseph set out to find her, Jack realizing that Jupiter may be the only thing that can save his new friend. Told in prose “so smooth and graceful that it is easy to empathize with Joseph,” Orbiting Jupiter “is a powerful story about second chances,” noted a Publishers Weekly critic. Sam Bloom wrote in Horn Book that Schmidt is “the master of the emotional gut-punch” and predicted of the novel that “the boys’ big hearts and the sadness of Joseph’s story will grab readers.” “Masterful is the word to describe Schmidt’s latest,” asserted Michael Cart in Booklist, and a Kirkus Reviews critic recommended Orbiting Jupiter as a “spare novel written with love and grace.”
A sports-loving sixth grader takes center stage in Schmidt’s humorous novel Pay Attention, Carter Jones. As readers meet Carter, his energy is focused on arriving on time at his first day of middle school: with his military dad deployed in Europe and his younger sisters keeping his mom busy, the Jones household is in a tumult. Fortunately, a ring at the door may solve the problem as dapper Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick introduces himself as a loyal servant to Mr. Jones’s late father who has been assigned by the man’s will to serve this new family. The man’s arrival is especially important for Carter, who is grieving the death of an older brother he idolized: Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick teaches Carter to play cricket, drive a car, build social skills, and gain in self-confidence while also sharing stories of Jones family history. The author’s “deft incorporation of comedic scenes and … trademark use of narrator-provided snark” balances the tale’s poignant side, noted Horn Book contributor Eric Carpenter, providing sufficient “levity … to counteract the … tears readers are likely to shed” over other challenges Carter faces during this pivotal year. Praising Schmidt’s preteen character as “very real,” Kevin Delecki also praised Pay Attention, Carter Jones in BookPage, suggesting that readers who have “struggled with the loss of a parent or the realities of growing up will find themselves in this story.”
In a Publishers Weekly interview with Sally Lodge, Schmidt discussed writing Pay Attention, Carter Jones and admitted that he was partially influenced by the life-affirming themes of P.L. Travers’ classic children’s novel Mary Poppins. “All my books are about that motion from childhood to adulthood,” he explained, and here his young protagonist must “define what he’s going through and grow into something new. He has to face the reality that his father is deliberately choosing not to come home, and he’s learning that people you love can betray you. And yet there is the goodness that comes into his life with the arrival of the butler, who’s also looking for his next step. … For me, that is the heart of the story. It’s that next step that is always most interesting to me.”
Schmidt turns to fantasy in What Came from the Stars, which finds a Massachusetts sixth grader carrying around a tiny planet full of aliens in his school lunch box. Light years from Earth a civilization has fallen to the power of evil, and a young alien is left to gather the best of the Valorim culture and protect it from powers that would destroy it. Forged onto a chain and resembling jewelry, this object finds its way into Tommy Pepper’s possession and gives him new insights and strange new powers. Unfortunately, something evil wants the chain back and Tommy hopes that his newfound powers are enough to protect his home, his community, and even his planet.
What Came from the Stars plays out in dual narratives, one told in the archaic prose of the Valorim scribe and the other that of Tommy, whose humorous running commentary was characterized by a Publishers Weekly critic as “vintage Schmidt.” The author’s “obvious delight in creating an Anglo-Saxon planet” will entertain readers, asserted a Kirkus Reviews writer, and in Booklist, Michael Cart described What Came from the Stars as “absorbing and imaginative and [sure to] … be welcomed by fans of high fantasy.”
The members of an affluent New England family find their privileged lives irrevocably altered by tragedy in Trouble, a novel for older teens that examines loss, responsibility, and reconciliation. When Franklin Smith, a teen rugby star, is struck and killed by a car driven by his classmate, Cambodian refugee Chay Chouan, the residents of Blythbury-by-the-Sea react with anger toward local immigrant community. According to Kate McClelland in School Library Journal, Trouble contains “compassionate examinations of the passage from childhood to adulthood and of the patterns of common experience that mark and unite us as humans.” Robin L. Smith, writing in Horn Book, maintained that Schmidt’s “rich secondary characters” enhance his “discussion of how tragedy and racism affect individuals, families, and whole communities,” while a Publishers Weekly critic dubbed Trouble “tautly constructed, metaphorically rich, emotionally gripping and seductively told.” In Booklist, Ian Chipman concluded that Schmidt’s story “focuses on the serious stuff, but handles teen levity well enough to keep readers involved.”
Religious and spiritual matters are often addressed in Schmidt’s nonfiction works. William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful Pilgrim is intended for older readers and examines the guiding light of the Plymouth Colony, painting “a warm and cohesive picture of William Bradford’s role in that colony’s foundation and growth,” as a critic in Kirkus Reviews observed. A picture book, Saint Ciaran focuses on the sixth-century Irish saint who went to Rome and was inspired to return home and found a religious community that attracted Christians from all over Ireland. In Booklist, Grace DeCandido called Saint Ciaran a “beautiful picture book for older children” and School Library Journal critic Kathleen Kelly MacMillan deemed it a “gently moving tribute to a lesser-known saint.”
Schmidt’s picture-book biography Martín de Porres shares the life story of the first black saint of the Americas and is illustrated by David Diaz. Born in the Peruvian city of Lima, Martín lived in poverty as the mixed-race son of a former African slave. After his European-born father apprenticed the lad to a barber, Martín discovered the talent for healing that would inspire his monastic life and dedication to helping the poor. “Schmidt’s telling, touching in its simplicity, is well matched with Diaz’s exceptional artwork,” asserted Ilene Cooper in her Booklist review of Martín de Porres, and School Library Journal critic Lisa Egly Lehmuller described the picture book as “an artful and reverent portrait” of an under-recognized Catholic whose life is “inspiring and evocative of Christian virtue.”
The life of noted former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth is brought to life by Schmidt and illustrator Daniel Minter in So Tall Within. Born Isabella Baumfree in New York in 1797, Truth eventually managed to escape slavery in her twenties and became an evangelical Christian. Her new name reflected her life’s work from that point: speaking to the evils of slavery and the fact that all people are equal in God’s sight, regardless of the color of their skin. In So Tall Within, Schmidt’s “poetic text highlights her inner journey,” noted a Kirkus Reviews writer, and it paints Truth as “not just a strong historical figure, but a human being in insufferable circumstances.” Also in praise of the work, Michelle H. Martin noted that Schmidt’s “hauntingly beautiful and uncompromisingly direct” story is paired with illustrations by Minter that “will draw readers back again and again.”
“Teaching children’s literature as I do, I have the opportunity to read many of the extraordinary children’s books published each year,” Schmidt once noted in SATA. “Working at a college also means that I combine several levels of writing. … At the same time [as writing for children], I work on books that are slightly more arcane: a study of the medieval image of the mouth of hell and a biography of an eighteenth-century female historian. For me, these two very different kinds of writing (both creative, but one more scholarly than the other) help keep each project exciting rather than burdensome, even though there are the days when neither seems to have much energy.
“In my own work in children’s literature, … I am interested in showing the beatific and terrible complexities of our lives,” Schmidt also observed. “I have had one reader tell me that The Sin Eater was sadder and funnier than he thought it would be. It seems to me that our lives are just that: often sadder and funnier than we ever thought they would be. They are also more beatific than we have any reason to expect, and my hope is to show that in the context of a world that is often dark.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of Katherine Paterson, p. 1611; December 1, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of Robert Frost, p. 669; November 1, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of The Sin Eater, p. 491; November 1, 1997, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of The Blessing of the Lord: Stories from the Old and New Testaments, p. 469; April 1, 1999, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Anson’s Way, p. 1428; April 1, 2000, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Saint Ciaran: The Tale of a Saint of Ireland, p. 1459; June 1, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 71; August, 2001, Frances Bradburn, review of Straw into Gold, p. 2108; October 1, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of The Great Stone Face: A Tale by Nathaniel Hawthorne, p. 327; May 15, 2004, Hazel Rochman, review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, p. 1629; September 15, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of First Boy, p. 60;March 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of Trouble, p. 61; April 15, 2011, Gillian Engberg, review of Okay for Now, p. 62; June 1, 2012, Ilene Cooper, review of Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, p. 86; July 1, 2012, Michael Cart, review of What Came from the Stars, p. 64; September 1, 2015, Michael Cart, review of Orbiting Jupiter, p. 108.
BookPage, February, 2019, Kevin Delecki, review of Pay Attention, Carter Jones, p. 31.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, May, 1999, Janice M. Del Negro, review of Anson’s Way, pp. 327-328; May, 2011, review of Okay for Now, p. 438; November, 2015, Karen Coats, review of Orbiting Jupiter, p. 165.
Horn Book, November-December, 2004, Betty Carter, review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, p. 717; September-October, 2005, Vicky Smith, review of First Boy, p. 589; July-August, 2007, Betty Carter, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 403; May-June, 2008, Robin L. Smith, review of Trouble, p. 326; May-June, 2011, Betty Carter, review of Okay for Now, p. 102; January-February, 2019, Eric Carpenter, review of Pay Attention, Carter Jones, p. 103, and Michelle H. Martin, review of So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk toward Freedom, p. 120.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 1996, review of The Sin Eater, p. 1328; June 1, 1998, review of William Bradford: Pilgrim of Answerable Courage, p. 816; May 1, 2004, review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, p. 448; May 15, 2007, review of The Wednesday Wars; April 1, 2008, review of Trouble; March 1, 2011, review of Okay for Now; August 1, 2012, review of What Came from the Stars; July 15, 2015, review of Orbiting Jupiter Jupiter; July 15, 2018, review of So Tall Within; October 1, 2019, review of Almost Time.
Kliatt, September, 2005, Paula Rohrlick, review of First Boy, p. 14; May, 2007, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 19; March, 2008, Ashleigh Larsen, review of Trouble, p. 19.
New York Times Book Review, December 16, 2007, Tanya Lee Stone, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 23; May 15, 2011, Richard Peck, review of Okay for Now, p. 18.
Publishers Weekly, December 19, 1994, review of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, pp. 54-55; October 14, 1996, review of The Sin Eater, p. 84; August 25, 1997, review of The Blessing of the Lord, p. 66; March 1, 1999, review of Anson’s Way, p. 70; April 10, 2000, review of Saint Ciaran, p. 95; April 16, 2007, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 51; March 31, 2008, review of Trouble, p. 62; February 21, 2011, review of Okay for Now, p. 34; August 6, 2012, review of What Came from the Stars, p. 56; August 17, 2015, review of Orbiting Jupiter, p. 72; September 9, 2019, review of Almost Time, p. 64.
School Librarian, spring, 2016, Judith Palka, review of Orbiting Jupiter, p. 59.
School Library Journal, December, 1994, Kate Hegarty Bouman, review of Pilgrim’s Progress, p. 130; October, 1997, Patricia Pearl Dole, review of The Blessing of the Lord, p. 154; April, 1999, Starr E. Smith, review of Anson’s Way, p. 12; June, 1999, Elaine Fort Weischedel, review of William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful Pilgrim, p. 153; August, 2000, Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, review of Saint Ciaran, p. 175; August, 2001, Ginny Gustin, review of Straw into Gold, p. 188; November, 2002, Grace Oliff, review of The Great Stone Face, p. 135; May, 2004, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, p. 157; October, 2005, Connie Tyrrell Burns, review of First Boy, p. 173; July, 2007, Joel Shoemaker, review of The Wednesday Wars, p. 110; April, 2008, Kate McClelland, review of Trouble, p. 148; April, 2011, Riva Pollard, review of Okay for Now, p. 184; July, 2012, Lisa Egly Lehmuller, review of Martín de Porres, p. 72.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 1998, Kathleen Beck, review of The Sin Eater, p. 103; August, 1999, Hilary Crew, review of Anson’s Way, pp. 185-186; June, 2011, Cindy Faughnan and Jenna Yee, review of Okay for Now, p. 172; December, 2015, Richard Vigdor, review of Orbiting Jupiter, p. 64.
ONLINE
Calvin College website, http://www.calvin.edu/ (August 15, 2017), “Garry D. Schmidt.”
National Book Foundation website, http://www.nationalbook.org/ (December 27, 2011), Eisa Nefertari Ulen, author interview.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (January 29, 2019), Sally Lodge, author interview.
School Library Journal, http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/ (February 12, 2011), Elizabeth Bird, review of Okay for Now.
Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/ (December 10, 2011), Meghan Cox Gurdon, review of Okay for Now.*
Gary D Schmidt
USA flag (b.1957)
Gary D. Schmidt is an American children's writer of nonfiction books and young adult novels, including two Newbery Honor books. He lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan,[citation needed] with his wife and six children, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, feeds the wild cats that drop by and wishes that sometimes the sea breeze came that far inland. He is a Professor of English at Calvin College. .
Genres: Children's Fiction
New Books
October 2021
(hardback)
One Smart Sheep
Novels
The Sin Eater (1996)
Anson's Way (1999)
Straw Into Gold (2001)
Mara's Stories (2001)
The Wonders of Donal O'Donnell (2002)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2004)
First Boy (2005)
The Wednesday Wars (2007)
Trouble (2008)
Okay for Now (2011)
What Came from the Stars (2012)
Orbiting Jupiter (2015)
Pay Attention, Carter Jones (2019)
A Long Road on a Short Day (2020) (with Elizabeth Stickney)
Just Like That (2021)
One Smart Sheep (2021) (with Elizabeth Stickney)
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Omnibus
A Newbery Honor Collection boxed set (2012) (with Marion Dane Bauer, Karen Cushman and Scott O'Dell)
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Collections
The Pilgrim's Progress (1994)
The Blessing of the Lord (1997)
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Picture Books
The Great Stone Face (1940)
In God's Hands (2005) (with Lawrence Kushner)
Martin de Porres (2012)
So Tall Within (2018)
Almost Time (2020) (with Elizabeth Stickney)
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Anthologies edited
Robert Frost (1994)
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Non fiction
Katherine Paterson (1982)
Robert McCloskey (1990)
Hugh Lofting (1992)
The Iconography of the Mouth of Hell (1995)
Robert Lawson (1997)
William Bradford (1998)
Saint Ciaran (2000)
Edging the Boundaries of Children's Literature (2001)
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Awards
Blue Peter Book Award Book of the Year winner (2000) : The Pilgrim's Progress: A Retelling
Gary D. Schmidt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the Wisconsin politician, see Gary J. Schmidt.
Gary D. Schmidt
Schmidt at the Mazza Museum in 2012
Schmidt at the Mazza Museum in 2012
Born April 14, 1957 (age 64)[1]
Hicksville, NY[2]
Occupation Academic, writer
Genre Realistic fiction
Notable works
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
The Wednesday Wars
Okay for Now
(Just Like That)
Notable awards
National Book Award (finalist)
Newbery Honor
Printz Honor
Spouse Anne E Stickney
(m. 1979; died 2013)[3][4]
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Gary David Schmidt[5] (born April 14, 1957) is an American author of children's and young adults' fiction books. He currently resides in Alto, Michigan, where he is a professor of English at Calvin University.
Contents
1 Life and literary career
1.1 Early life and education
1.2 Awards and honors
1.3 Personal life
2 Selected bibliography
3 References
4 External links
Life and literary career
Early life and education
Gary D. Schmidt was born in Hicksville, New York, in 1957. As a child, Schmidt says he was underestimated by teachers at an elementary school where students were classified by aptitude. Concerning his early education, Schmidt explained in an interview with NPR: "If you're Track One you're the college-bound kid; if you're Track Two you'll have a good job; if you're Track Three you're the stupid kid. And I was tracked as Track Three."[6] After intervention from a concerned teacher, Schmidt found a love for reading, an event which served as inspiration for his novel The Wednesday Wars.[6]
In the mid 1970s, Schmidt attended Gordon College, earning an undergraduate degree in English in 1979. Thereafter he attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, obtaining a master's degree in English in 1981 before graduating with a PhD in medieval literature in 1985. Schmidt has since worked as a professor for the English department at Calvin College.[7]
Awards and honors
In 2005, Schmidt's novel Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy was awarded a Newbery Honor, which recognizes "the most distinguished contribution[s] to American literature for children",[8] and a Printz Honor. In 2008, he was awarded a second Newbery Honor for The Wednesday Wars.[9]
Schmidt's novel Okay for Now, the 2011 sequel to The Wednesday Wars, was a National Book Award finalist.[10]
Personal life
In 1996, Schmidt was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. While being treated, he was exposed to a variety of other cancer patients whose stories, he claims, served as inspiration for future novels and encouraged him to write primarily for children and young adults.[11]
Schmidt and his late wife, Anne, have six children; one is a teacher. He is a practicing Christian and describes himself as religious.[11] He also enjoys teaching writing courses in prisons and detention centers, and experiences there served as inspiration for his novel Orbiting Jupiter.[12]
Selected bibliography
(In order of publication)
The Sin Eater (Dutton Publishers; New York; 1996)
The Blessing of the Lord (Eerdmans; 1997)
William Bradford: Plymouth's Faithful Pilgrim (Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids; 1999)
Anson's Way (Clarion Books; New York; 1999)
Ciaran: The Tale of a Saint of Ireland (Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, MI; 2000)
Mara's Stories (Henry Holt; New York; 2001)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (New York; Clarion Books; 2004)
In God's Hands (Jewish Lights Publications; Woodstock, Vermont; 2005)
First Boy (Henry Holt; New York; 2005)
The Wednesday Wars (Clarion Books; New York; 2007)
Trouble (Clarion Books; New York; 2008)
Straw into Gold (Clarion; 2009)
Okay for Now (Clarion Books; New York; 2011)
What Came from the Stars (Clarion Books; New York; 2012)
Martín de Porres: The rose in the desert (Clarion; 2012)
Orbiting Jupiter (Clarion; 2015)
Pay Attention, Carter Jones (Clarion; 2019)
Just Like That (Clarion; 2021)[13]
Almost Time
by Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney; illus. by G. Brian Karas
Preschool, Primary Clarion 32 pp. g 1/20 978-0-544-78581-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-358-16693-1 $12.99
Waiting for spring can wear on one's patience, but readers may find comfort sharing the burden with Ethan and his (apparently single-parent) father, who go through their daily routines looking forward to warmer days, shorter nights, and running sap in their maple trees. Still, Ethan has quite a wait yet, and as time passes, the illustrations show the stark contrasts of dark skies and long shadows with indoor lights and white snow. And, week after week, Ethan faces Sunday breakfast sans maple syrup, while the nights remain long and the days cold. A loose tooth provides a break in the monotony but ultimately creates yet another thing to wait for. Through muted colors with pops of red and well-considered details, artfully placed illustrations ranging from spot art to double-page spreads capture the relentlessness of winter, the budding of spring, and the easy comfort of this father-and-son relationship. Crisp text supplies just the right pace for the story and clearly explains the sugaring process without disrupting the flow of the narrative. The subtle visual cues that the season is slowly changing become more evident with every page-turn until the sweet and satisfying conclusion. JULIE ROACH
g indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Roach, Julie. "Almost Time." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. ZIP, Jan.-Feb. 2020, pp. 79+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616788622/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ae91c73a. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Almost Time
Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, illus. by G. Brian Karas. Clarion, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-544-78581-6
Set in maple sugaring country, this tale by Schmidt (Pay Attention, Carter Jones) and Stickney (the pen name of Schmidt's late wife) examines the difficulty of waiting for exciting things when they unfold at the natural world's pace. Ethan knows what season it is by the breakfast he's served: "When Ethan had to eat his pancakes with applesauce instead of maple syrup one Sunday morning, he knew it was almost sugaring time." But it's still several weeks before the days are warm enough for the sap to run. Illustrations by Karas (Night Job) use soft, wintry colors with grainy textures as Ethan discovers a loose tooth ("Now Ethan had two things to wait for"). He spends his days wiggling his tooth, sledding, and trying "not to think about maple syrup." When the tooth comes out and the sap runs at last (a spread shows pails hanging on the family's trees), Ethan and his dad share the work of making syrup, captured in a series of panel illustrations. Schmidt's story centers on a single-parent household, with a father who pays quiet attention to his son ("How's that tooth?"), and shows him that waiting is part of life. Ages 4-7.
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"Almost Time." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 49, 2 Dec. 2020, p. 3. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646895634/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e6e6df2e. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Schmidt, Gary D. JUST LIKE THAT Clarion (Children's None) $16.99 1, 5 ISBN: 978-0-544-08477-3
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)
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"Schmidt, Gary D.: JUST LIKE THAT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638165850/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=287fb18d. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Just Like That
Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion, $16.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-54408-477-3
In 1968, the summer before her eighth grade year, Meryl Lee Kowalski's best friend dies suddenly, and Meryl Lee becomes enveloped in grief and depression--which she calls "the Blank"--on Long Island. To give her a new srart, her parents enroll her in a girls' prep school on the coast of Maine; the headmistress, Dr. MacKnockater, promises to help Meryl Lee become "accomplished." As the school year progresses and she fends off the encroaching Blank, Meryl Lee also faces classist teachers and snobby classmates while discovering a social conscience around the treatment of the school's kitchen staff. A secondary arc follows Matt Coffin, whom Dr. MacKnockater finds living in an oceanside shack and whose dark past is never far behind. The heaviness of Mart's story line at times eclipses Meryl Lee's, but episodes of slapstick humor, told in Schmidt's (Pay Attention. Carter Jones) trademark wry deadpan, are woven throughout (a disastrous formal luncheon hosting Vice-President Spiro Agnew is a standout). Though overlong and occasionally plodding, Schmidt's rich, humane tale rewards persistent readers with moments of hilarity and heartache in a skillfully rendered Vietnam War-era boarding school setting. Ages 10-up. (Jan.)
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"Just Like That." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 45, 9 Nov. 2020, p. 73. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A644651901/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a8ac632a. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
SCHMIDT, Gary D. Just Like That. 400p. Clarion. Jan. 2021. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780544084773.
Gr 5-8--Schmidt's extended family of memorable characters loses one but gains a few more in this masterful companion to The Wednesday Wars and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. It's summer 1968, immediately after the end of Wednesday Wars, and Meryl Lee Kowalski (described as having auburn hair and freckles) is reeling from the shocking accidental death of Holling Hoodhood, the boy she's loved since the third grade. Her parents send her to the prestigious St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls in Harpswell, ME, to help her come to terms with the loss. Also arriving in Harpswell is Matt Coffin, a homeless white 13-year-old whose harrowing past keeps him on the run, with the dream of safety and happiness always out of reach. Matt and Meryl Lee's lives intertwine with the help of Dr. Nora MacKnockater, headmistress of St. Elene's. With wisdom and dry humor, Dr. MacKnockater patiently helps both teens recognize their value and innate strength. The novel shares the same setting as Lizzie Bright--Maine's rugged seacoast--as well as several deftly placed supporting characters fans of Lizzie will appreciate. As Meryl Lee and Matt face grave adult issues, Schmidt contrasts the worst of humanity with the affirmation that love and hope can make the world a beautiful place. His language is honest and direct without trivializing the seriousness of a character's experience. Meryl Lee realizes "life doesn't stop even when horrible things happen." The novel closes with the tantalizing hint that the next family story may come from Matt's missing past. VERDICT Schmidt effortlessly weaves seemingly unrelated plot threads into a beautiful tapestry of heartbreak, courage, and humor. An essential purchase for all middle grade collections.--Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem P.L., Holbrook, NY
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Kozikowski, Marybeth. "SCHMIDT, Gary D.: Just Like That." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 11, Nov. 2020, pp. 60+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A640012994/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=431ee1b3. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
One Smart Sheep
Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, illus. by Jane Manning. Clarion, $17.99 (80p) ISBN 978-0-54488835-7
In this beginning chapter book authored by previous collaborators (A Long Road on a Short Day) Schimdt and his late wife Stickney, a sheep named Wilson makes an unexpected journey via delivery truck. It takes Wilson's resourceful owner Abigail Atwood, a border collie named Tippy, and a crusty, loud machine-loving neighbor named Jeremiah Jefferson to restore Wilson to his place on Abigail's farm. The narration proceeds in real time, describing Wilson's remarkably friendly personality--he always trots over for a pat--and developing a subplot of crabby exchanges between Abigail and Jeremiah ("I suppose he'd look handsome to some," Jeremiah says grudgingly when asked to admire Wilson). Affectionate passages recall Wilson's idyllic babyhood in Abigail and Tippy's cabin; it's an interest in finding the "warm and comfortable" that leads Wilson into a piano delivery truck, setting off further gambols. Rhythmic narration often comes in threes, as when Wilson discovers his error: "No Tippy. No Abigail. No woodstove, either." Manning (Jumping Off Library Shelves) contributes green, misty watercolors, with pinkskinned characters whose friendly, expressive faces befit this pure-hearted comedy. The creators celebrate the quirky dilemmas of rural life in a way that radiares affection for animals and their owners. Ages 8-1 2. Authors' agent: Rick Margolis, Rising Bear Literary. (Oct.)
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"One Smart Sheep." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 33, 16 Aug. 2021, p. 87. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673346463/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7ebaa3cd. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Schmidt, Gary D. ONE SMART SHEEP Clarion Books (Children's None) $17.99 10, 26 ISBN: 978-0-544-88835-7
Lost in the city, a sheep tries to find his way home.
Abigail Atwood and her border collie, Tippy, know that Wilson’s the “friendliest…woolliest [and] smartest” of the 27 sheep on their hillside farm. When Wilson was a tiny lamb, Abigail kept him in a box by the woodstove and bottle-fed him. Since joining the flock in the pasture, Wilson waits by the gate to greet Abigail and Tippy, rubbing his head against Abigail’s knee or touching noses with Tippy. “Wilson was special.” One early winter day, Wilson pushes open an unlatched pasture gate and heads toward Abigail and Tippy’s warm house, where a delivery truck is parked outside. Looking for Tippy, Wilson trots up the truck ramp just as the doors shut, trapping him inside. Enduring every bump, turn, and noise on his long ride inside the truck, Wilson then finds himself alone and disoriented in a crowded, busy city when the doors open. Meanwhile, Abigail realizes Wilson has vanished and searches everywhere but finds no sign of him. Wilson’s smart, but is he smart enough to find his way home in the encroaching darkness and snow? The large-print, easy-reading chapters hold enough action and suspense to keep budding readers turning pages as the plot alternates among Abigail, Tippy, and Wilson. Whimsical, charming full-page watercolor illustrations capture highlights of Wilson’s big adventure.
The delightful, fast-paced saga of a special sheep who uses his wits. (Fiction. 8-10)
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"Schmidt, Gary D.: ONE SMART SHEEP." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A669986312/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3e4a170c. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.
Schmidt, Gary D. A LONG ROAD ON A SHORT DAY Clarion (Children's None) $17.99 11, 10 ISBN: 978-0-544-88836-4
A boy and his father embark on a special mission.
When Samuel’s mother wishes for “a brown-eyed cow to give us milk for the baby,” Papa takes his best knife and invites Samuel to join him on a search for a cow. Leaving their farm early on a white January morning, Papa reminds Samuel to “keep up” because “it’s a long road and a short day,” a refrain he repeats throughout their journey. At neighbor Snow’s house, Papa trades his knife for two tin lanterns. At the Perrys’ house, he trades the lanterns for a book of poetry. He trades the book for a pitcher at Widow Mitchell’s, and the pitcher for a sheep when they encounter Dr. Fulton. This pattern continues as Papa trades the sheep for a gold pocket watch and the watch for a pony and cart that Samuel would dearly love to keep. Daylight is fading, snow is collecting, Samuel’s cold, and he has kept up with Papa, but will Papa trade the pony and cart for a cow? As the snow intensifies and the serial trading progresses, the momentum and suspense build gradually until father and son reach journey’s end, where Samuel receives a well-deserved reward. Full-page, realistic color illustrations introduce each chapter, tracing their journey from beginning to end in a snowy, rural, largely unmechanized environment evoking a simpler time and place.
Quiet, gentle, satisfying tale of father-son bonding. (Fiction. 8-10)
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"Schmidt, Gary D.: A LONG ROAD ON A SHORT DAY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A634467277/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=00a0e480. Accessed 21 Dec. 2021.