Okay for Now
By Gary D. Schmitdt
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
360 pages (paperback)
As a fourteen-year-old who
just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother,
Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age
masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner
Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug” that his
teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil
Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were
growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds
the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and
the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they
find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the
plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway
stage.
It
was good because I learned new things. [It could be] more interesting. [It]
seemed boring because there was no action really. Yes [I would recommend it]
because it has good vocabulary but No because it needs more action.
--Katie
S.
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