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Gary D Schmidt

(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. .

Awards: Blue Peter (2000) see all

Genres: Children's Fiction

New and upcoming books

April 2025

A Day at the Beach

Series

Orbiting Jupiter
Orbiting Jupiter (2015)
Jupiter Rising (2024)

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)
   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)
   The Labors of Hercules Beal (2023)
   A Day at the Beach (2025) (with Ron Koertge)

Collections

   The Pilgrim's Progress (1994)
   The Blessing of the Lord (1997)
   A Little Bit Super (2024) (with others)

Anthologies edited

Robert Frost (1994)

Picture Books show

Non fiction show

Omnibus editions show

Books containing stories by Gary D Schmidt

The Creativity Project (2018)
An Awesometastic Story Collection
edited by
Colby Sharp

From a Certain Point of View: Star Wars (2017)
(Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, book 1)

Been There, Done That (2015)
Writing Stories from Real Life
edited by
Mike Winchell

Awards

2000 Blue Peter Book Award for Book of the Year : The Pilgrim's Progress: A Retelling

Award nominations

	2008 Newbery Medal (nominee) : The Wednesday Wars
	2005 Newbery Medal (nominee) : Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
	2005 Michael L. Printz Award (nominee) : Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Gary D Schmidt recommends

Farther Than the Moon (2023)
Lindsay Lackey
"The power of Farther than the Moon comes at you twice, since this is a story of two loves: the love of space travel, the sheer thrill and excitement of being an astronaut, and the love of a kid who is absolutely devoted to his brother with disabilities. Both love stories will grip any reader who cheers for the seemingly impossible."

Wildoak (2022)
C C Harrington
"Wildoak is one of those novels that makes us believe the world may well be as mysterious and as lovely and as possible as we had hoped. Maybe we can speak to animals in ways we never anticipated, and maybe we can sense consciousness in places we had never imagined, and maybe deep hurts can be overcome--the hurts of war, of humiliation, of pride. The rambunctious and sometimes frightening and sometimes incredibly funny story of Maggie and Rumpus is a story of how we might connect more deeply and more humanly--and so it is a story of immense hope. Read it, and be enlarged!"

A Perfect Mistake (2022)
Melanie Conklin
"A creepy and dark setting, misleading clues, threats against the investigator--what more do you want in a mystery? But as it turns out, Max faces even deeper mysteries in discovering himself and his place in the world, and in the end, those are the poignant discoveries we're cheering about. A powerful novel that affirms difference and openness as we watch a boy hold onto friendship with a grip that will not let go."

A Song Called Home (2022)
Sara Zarr
"This is a novel filled with the terrific joys of real life--as well as its disappointments. It is a novel about broken families, about healing families, and about completely new and surprising families. And above all, it is a novel that dares us all to hope."

Breathing Underwater (2021)
Sarah Allen
"Breathing Underwater takes you by surprise again and again: You think it's a road trip story, then a search for treasure story, then that it's a story about the darkness of depression, then that it's a story about sisters. Finally, you realize it's all of these-and more. It's really, in the end, a love story, filled with joy and hurt and hope-and all the complexity that love brings with it."

The List of Things That Will Not Change (2020)
Rebecca Stead
"This is a story of love that enlarges, even though it is not always easy. We cheer for and are cheered by Bea’s quiet triumphs because they are triumphs of the heart."

96 Miles (2020)
J L Esplin
"A suspense thriller, survival story, and-most importantly-a story of the love between brothers. You'll turn the pages-and be surprised again and again."

A Drop of Hope (2019)
Keith Calabrese
"Every so often -- though not very often -- a book comes along that reminds us of what we are capable of as human beings. It reminds us that we can be kind. It reminds us that we can create. It reminds us that we really can grow into our best selves. And it does all this with a story that startles us with the absolute conviction that we are connected in ways whose complexities we can never fully know. This is one of those books."

The Genius Experiment (2018)
(Max Einstein, book 1)
Chris Grabenstein and James Patterson
"Mix together these ingredients: a feisty heroine, a rambunctious plot, a nasty villain, and the notion that being smart is cool, and that working together across all sorts of barriers is even cooler, and you have this rollicking roller coaster of a book. You won't stop turning the pages!"

No Saints in Kansas (2017)
Amy Brashear
"A gruesome murder, the clues, the investigation, the culprits, the trial—all of these are part of this riveting, fast-paced novel. But intertwined with those are, for newly arrived Carly Fleming, even harder questions. She is indefatigable in her search for the truth, but the truth she searches for is also about her place in this new town, where she is defined as an outsider, and within her own family, which is splitting apart. The unity and urgency of those two searches is searing."

Sidetracked (2017)
Diana Harmon Asher
"A splendid novel that I read in one sitting."

The War That Saved My Life (2015)
(War , book 1)
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
"In Ada's small war lies our large hope that love cannot, will not, be overcome. I read this novel in two big gulps."

Screaming at the Ump (2014)
Audrey Vernick
"You'll read this in the time it takes to play a double-header!"

Breadcrumbs (2011)
Anne Ursu
"This is a lyrical book, a lovely book, and a smart book; it dares us to see stories as spreading more widely, and running more deeply, than we had imagined."

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