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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt Review


Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Format: Hardcover, 360 pages
Published by Clarion Books
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.              

This book centers on Doug Swieteck, a eighth grade boy, who loves Joe Pepitone. His father is a heavy drinker, one older brother serving in the Vietnam War, and another beats him on a regular basis, Doug goes through life struggling not to be grouped in with the ruffian mold his new hometown, has made for his family, and on him.  He’s a hard worker, who deeply cares for his mother and loves John Audubon’s Birds of America. This book is a story of family life during the Vietnam War; it’s a story of injury, tragedy, PTSD, and above all love.