Just Like That

by Marsha Qualey

Book Overview

Things change so suddenly. one day Hanna has a long-term boyfriend; the next, she realizes she doesn t have strong feelings for him and breaks up with him. one day Hanna trusts her two best friends... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142408301
• ISBN13: 9780142408308
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Speak
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

You know her- just like that

Within a few pages, you just know that Hanna is real. She has to be real. From the sudden changes in her dating world to her falling out with friends, everything is so true that it must have happened to a living, breathing someone. Even the home party scene is authentic, and you know how stilted those can be in some hands. The best part, though, is that Hanna is surrounded by other bona fide characters. Will and the whole Walker family, Hanna's mom, even her grandmother- are all perfectly imperfect. Even the characters we are supposed to dislike the most breathe and ache and sigh, so the reader can really see how they got where they are. If you are shelving this book for teen readers, be aware that there are some references to a sexual relationship between characters, but nothing more offensive than that. Discussions of loss and coping behaviors are frank, but not likely to cause teens or parents to become too upset.

Richie's Picks: JUST LIKE THAT

From the Associated Press, November 26, 2005: "CEDAR GROVE, Wis. - The deaths of two children and a man who broke through frozen ponds in southeastern Wisconsin have led officials to warn of the dangers of skating or driving on early winter's thin ice." Just like that, the horror of the headlines plunged me right back into the tense, cold memory of Marsha Qualey's JUST LIKE THAT, a story of broken hearts and frozen secrets: "Snowmobiles and ATVs were illegal in the city parks, but that didn't ever stop people from tearing down streets and over the lakes when there was fresh snow. A sinewy cloud of breath shot out of my mouth as I swore at the disturbance. I stood up, ready to stalk away so I could be alone with my bad mood. A four-wheeler raced past me toward the lake. Its bright headlight cut a swath out of the darkness. There were two people on the vehicle. More happy lovers, no doubt. I'd ventured out tonight to purge my head of thoughts of romance and look what I'd run into. The ATV sped over a snowbank at the edge of the ice and rode the air for a few feet. When it landed, the passenger tumbled off. The driver immediately cut the engine. A girl laughed and shouted, 'I love you Derek!' I sat back down. The movement must have caught her eye because she called out, 'Friend or foe?' They laughed at her wit in a merry tenor-soprano duet. Before I could answer 'Foe,' they sped off again. Then they made a sharp turn and came toward me, angling away at the last minute and stopping with a spray of snow that missed me by inches. 'It's our one-year anniversary!' the girl said. 'Here's a present in reverse! Find someone and have fun!' An unwrapped condom landed on my lap." In dealing with the thoughts surrounding her having broken up with her longtime boyfriend, eighteen year-old high schooler and aspiring artist Hanna Martin impulsively takes a chilly midnight stroll and finds herself on a bench at the edge of frozen Lake Calhoun. And so Hanna is in no mood for the young couple's antics. She ignores her impulse, and neglects to warn the young lovers that a pair of skiiers had just come off the ice and had made totally sure that Hanna had no intention to go out on the lake, which the skiiers found insufficently frozen to be safe. Little does Hanna Martin realize, stuck in her own thoughts, that she will be the last person to see the ATV couple alive. The girl's frozen body is found the next morning at the edge of the lake, to where she had dragged herself before succumbing. The boy's body is later recovered out in the middle of the lake. Just like that, they're gone. In coping with her role in the tragedy, about which she says nothing to family or friends, Hanna repeatedly returns to the pond, where she keeps spotting a young man who clearly must have a connection to the young couple. First, she draws him. Then she tracks him down and meets him. The young man, Will Walker, turns out to be the one to have discovered the girl's body. And the sec

best one yet, Marsha

This was a wonderful book. I felt like I was right there in Minneapolis, in the cold winter. The author really brought home the feelings that come with betrayal and forgiveness. I would recommend it to any teenager.

The story of how a girl's life changes after witnessing a tragic accident

High school senior Hanna is having a bad day --- she's just broken up with her boyfriend, and no one seems to understand why she would dump such a perfect guy. Confused and sleepless, she heads out for a midnight walk on a brutally cold Minnesota winter night. As she sits by the lake feeling sorry for herself, she witnesses what she later realizes is the lead-up to a deadly accident, a tragedy she's convinced she could have prevented. As artistic Hanna revisits the scene of the accident to sketch out her feelings, she notices another solitary visitor to the site. Soon she discovers that another person, Will, is hiding his own secret about that terrible night. United by their role in the tragedy, Will and Hanna develop an immediate physical and emotional attraction. Soon, though, Hanna discovers that Will is hiding more about himself than she had expected. Before Hanna realizes Will's secret, though, she's already gotten inextricably involved with his large, emotionally intense family. Hanna, who is an only child being raised by her widowed mother, is attracted by Will's passionate, close-knit family, especially by his older sister Aerin, who is recovering from her own tragedy. Hanna's exposure to this new kind of family inspires her to seek out the truth about her own family roots. Marsha Qualey's novels for young adults always seem to avoid the kinds of clichéd plots that can mar much fiction for teens. An examination of Hanna's guilt over the death of two teenagers could have deteriorated into a simplistic expose of survivor's guilt. Instead, though, Qualey delves into the complexities of Hanna's reactions; she explores the impact on Hanna's friendships, on her academic work, on her artistic expression, and on her close relationship with her mother. The weakest aspect of the novel is the brief "What Happens Next?" epilogue, which ties up plot ends a little too conveniently and simplistically for what is, in all other respects, a challenging and complex portrayal of an intelligent and complicated young woman. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Read That Now

Just Like That explores the story of a teenage girl named Hanna. After breaking up with her boyfriend, she thinks she'll have a quiet moment to herself, sitting near the frozen-over lake late at night. She sees a slightly older couple, who urge her to come with them to be safe. She stays put. They warn her about the thin ice and depart. Shortly thereafter, a couple about her age drives by on an ATV, loud and giddy, teasing her. Lonely and cranky, she doesn't pass on the warning about the ice. The next morning, she hears about their deaths on the news. She realizes she was the last person to see them alive - and that she might have been able to prevent their deaths. But she doesn't tell anyone that she was there, not even her mother, not even her two best friends. And things start to change. Soon, Hanna meets Will, someone else tied in with that night's events. She gets involved with him rather quickly. Just as quickly, she finds herself drawn into a family with hearts on their sleeves and skeletons in their closet. Just Like That is highly realistic dramatic fiction in the vein of Sarah Dessen - and that is a high compliment coming from me. It is a must-read book for anyone looking for a poignant story with true-to-life, flawed characters. When I make my top books of the year selections in December, Just Like That is sure to be high on the list.