Schmidt, Gary D. 2011. Okay for Now. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780547152608
Brief
Plot Summary:
Okay
for Now
is a story about a boy named Doug Swieteck who moves, with his family, to
upstate New York in the summer of 1968.
In addition to normal teenage angst, Doug also faces an abusive father
and a conniving brother. In his new
town, he discovers a few surprises, including a girl named Lil, a previously
undiscovered artistic talent, and a few attentive, quirky mentors who nicely
round out the sweet cast of characters.
Critical
analysis:
Gary D. Schmidt has created an outstanding
cast of relatable characters. The main
character of Doug Swieteck is funny, sweet, endearing, witty, vulnerable, and
strong. Young adults will root for Doug
as he struggles with bullies (including a teacher), an abusive father, a
brother whose reputation has negative repercussions for Doug, and as he
navigates through the discovery of new talents and his first crush. Adults will be smitten with Doug, as
well. He is smart, witty, and the
underdog. The characters are completely
believable and readers who weren’t around for the late 1960s will feel as if
they are there, especially in the Swieteck home, where Doug’s mom always has a
smile on her face and works hard to calm the waters when Doug’s father arrives
home from work.
Many historical events are presented
accurately, including the Vietnam War and protests, the first Lunar Landing,
and several events in major league baseball.
These events are not overwhelmed by details or political views and young
adult readers may be so entertained that they don’t realize they are learning
about historical events.
The setting is vividly described as readers
can sense the borderline poverty of the Swieteck home from the broken dishes
that don’t get replaced to the excitement over free plants given to Doug’s
mother to start a garden. Maryville, a
small town in upstate New York, is presented as a quaint town, small enough
that Doug quickly learns his grocery delivery route customers and, certainly,
small enough for his brother’s “crimes” to affect his reputation at school.
The adult themes of abuse and post-traumatic
stress disorder are treated gently as Doug interacts with his father and oldest
brother, who returns from the Vietnam War blind and missing his legs. The themes of redemption and triumph over
adversity, again in Doug’s father and brother, are evident and neatly wrapped
up at the end of the book. The author’s
writing style eloquently captures the speech patterns of the 1960s. Doug’s constant declaration, “I’m not even
lying” and the frequent use of the word “chump” evoke memories of characters
from Happy Days and Leave it to Beaver.
Doug’s constant comments to the reader such as “if you were listening
back there, you’d know why” or “as you might remember” serve to create a
personal connection between Doug and the reader and make the story all the more
endearing.
The historical context of the
book appears to be thoroughly researched and events are neatly included in
history and physical science lessons for Doug and his classmates. The characters do not seem to be
stereotyped. In fact, Doug’s artistic
talents and passion for the Audubon birds seem to go against most
stereotypical, self-absorbed teen characters.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book more
than any other book that I have read this semester. I will enthusiastically recommend it to
adults and young adults.
Awards
won:
National Book Award Finalist
Review
Excerpts:
Library
Media Connection
It's the summer of 1968 and Doug Swieteck has just moved to
Marysville, New York. His father is a mean drunk, his older brother seems to be
a juvenile delinquent, and his mother is just trying to hold the family
together. Before the summer ends, Doug has a friend (Lil), an obsession (the
work of John James Audubon), and a job (delivering groceries). Over the course
of the school year, Doug begins to change from a wary, closed boy into an open,
engaged young man, despite the challenges he faces. He finds a teacher who
understands him, begins to spend time in the local library drawing Audubon's
birds, and, in the book's most unlikely twist, winds up on a Broadway stage. He
witnesses his family's transformation with the return of his oldest brother
from Vietnam. The book closes on a bittersweet note, with hope tempering a
character's serious illness; but a really happy ending would have felt out of
place. There are laugh-out-loud moments here, and passages that will move a
reader to tears; it's brilliant, and beautiful, and very nearly a perfect book.
Poulter,
Susan A. M. 2011. “Okay for Now.” Library
Media Connection 30, no. 1: 78. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed July 22, 2013).
School Library Journal
When his blowhard dad loses his job, Doug Swieteck has to say so
long to his friend Holling and Camillo Junior High and get used to things in
stupid Marysville, NY. His oldest brother's in Vietnam, his middle brother's
still a hoodlum, his mom is quiet but enduring, and his only salvation is
weekly visits to the public library, where the librarian is teaching him to
draw by using models from a volume of Audubon's Birds of America. Also not too bad is Lil,
the daughter of the grocer who gives him a delivery job. Fans of The Wednesday Wars
(Clarion, 2007) will find that this companion novel has more in common with it
than just a charismatic narrator and pitch-perfect details of daily life in the
1960s. In addition to a mix of caring adults and comically unreasonable
authority figures, Schmidt
also revisits baseball, theatrical escapades, and timely preoccupations like
the Moon landing and the Vietnam War. But Doug's blue-collar story is much
darker than Holling's in the earlier novel, and, as a narrator, he's more
psychologically complex. Readers know right up front that his father is
abusive, but for a while Doug keeps the depth and magnitude--among other
secrets--hidden from those around him. He grows to realize a lot about his
family's relationships through study of Audubon's painted birds (one plate is
featured at the start of each chapter), and the volume itself becomes a
metaphor for his journey from fragmented to whole self. Schmidt manages a hard
balance of relatable youth-is-hard humor and nuanced family trauma, though the
mix of antics and realism is a bit Shakespearean. Readers will miss Doug and
his world when they're done, and will feel richer for having experienced his
engaging, tough, and endearing story.
Pollard,
Riva. 2011. “Okay for Now.” School
Library Journal 57, no. 4: 184. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed July 22, 2013).
Publisher’s Weekly
This companion to The Wednesday Wars follows the formula of Schmidt's Newbery
Honor winner with less success. Doug Swieteck, a prankster in the previous
book, has graver problems than Holling Hoodhood did, making the interplay of
pathos and slapstick humor an uneasy fit. In summer 1968, the Swietecks leave
Long Island for the Catskills, where Doug's father has found work. Doug's
mother (like Holling's) is kind but ineffectual; Mr. Swieteck is a brutish
jerk. His abuse of his three sons, one of whom is currently in Vietnam, happens
mostly offstage, but one episode of unthinkable cruelty is recounted as a
flashback to explain why Doug refuses to take off his shirt in gym class. Doug
does make two key friends: Lil, whose father owns the dell for which Doug
becomes delivery boy, and the less fleshed-out Mr. Powell, a librarian who
instantly sees Doug's potential as an artist. There are lovely moments, but the
late addition of an implausible subplot in which Lil, who has never shown an
interest in acting, is drafted for a role in a Broadway play, seems desultory
considering the story's weightier elements.
2011.
“Okay for Now.” Publishers Weekly
258, no. 8: 134. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed
July 22, 2013).
Connections:
Other
books by Gary D. Schmidt:
The
Wednesday Wars
Trouble
Lizzie
Bright and the Buckminster Boy
What
Came From the Stars
Enrichment
Activities:
Houghton Mifflin has a great website full of discussion
questions and enrichment activities related to this book:
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