Okay for Now

Doug Swieteck once played catch with Joe Pepitone of the New York Yankees and he gave him his signed baseball cap. It was the first thing Doug ever owned that didn't belong to another Swieteck before him and like most good things, it didn't last. His brother took his cap and his father lost his temper and his job and now they have to move to stupid Marysville where everyone looks at him like he doesn't belong. Marysville isn't all bad. There's Lil Spicer who can burp louder than anyone he's ever heard, and the library has these Audubon prints on display with birds that look like they're about to fly off the page. But the prints are being sold off and just when his life starts going okay, things get messed up all over again.

Things start off bad for Doug, then they get worse. Then they start to get better but that glimmer is stamped out and he's thrown ever farther into the abyss. But then things start to improve again and the complicated knots his life has been tied up in start to get unraveled.  Things will never be perfect for Doug, but they will be okay. This novel gets very dark but it left me uplifted with a sense that no matter how bad things get, there is always a way to make them okay again. The narrative voice is compelling and believable and adds humor to the dark corners of the novel. This book could be enjoyed by anyone who has ever felt like they didn't belong somewhere.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Erica's Picks
5th-8th
Tags: Character Driven, Family Life, Historical Fiction, Humor, Issues Fiction, School Stories

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