Thursday, December 12, 2013

STUDENT REVIEW - Okay for Now by Gary D, Schmitdt


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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