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A very good coming of age book. It's about an 8th grader who moves to upstate NY with his dysfunctional family. The book is fairly slow for the first two-thirds but then it really takes off and ends up being something special. Schmidt does a nice job of setting the late 1960s context, weaving in events as the Vietnam War and capturing what it felt like to live in a small town during that time-frame. Jane Eyre and Audubon's book of birds both play into the story, which I found to be interesting,
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This is an awesome, touching YA novel that I think will appeal to both boys and girls. It is told in the voice of Doug Swieteck, whom I remember vaguely as one of the secondary characters in The Wednesday Wars (also very good, but I think Okay for Now actually surpasses it).
Because Doug tells the story, there are some 'teenage boy' speech tics that didn't appeal personally to me (and which prevented me from giving it the full five stars) but I think it's actually an authentic feature of the nove ...more
Because Doug tells the story, there are some 'teenage boy' speech tics that didn't appeal personally to me (and which prevented me from giving it the full five stars) but I think it's actually an authentic feature of the nove ...more
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As usual, Gary Schmidt is superb! Funny but poignant, warm but heartbreaking. The main character is some sort of a jerk but somehow you can't help but rooting for him. The setting of small town in America during the 70s where Vietnam war was still in the middle of its heat, and how it related to Doug (the main character) and his family- it's all so neat and beautiful and hilarious. This is the second book from Schmidt that I read and like. Couldn't wait to read for more!
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Jun 25, 2015
Tracy
marked it as to-read
Sep 19, 2017
Nikoleta
marked it as to-read
Dec 02, 2019
Becca
marked it as to-read
Jun 15, 2022
Sarita
marked it as books-to-consider
Oct 13, 2022
Curlysue
marked it as to-read
