I like to read a middle grade books from time to time, all the ones I've read have been fantastic and it's refreshing to read a story where romance is barely there, or nonexistent. I read quite a bit more YA and the good ones remind me of falling in love as a teenager (to my now husband!) and all the feelings that come with that time. It makes me look back on my teen years fondly.
Where as reading middle grade mostly makes me glad I am never going to be 12-13 again, praise the Lord. That's a rough age for pretty much everyone, or at least a time we look back on to cringe a little.
(Not that I'd like to relive my teen years either, and there were certainly cringe-y moments there too but overall, less cringe-y.)
This one, Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt was another fantastic book to an age I don't want to relive (pre-teen/early teen), a life I'll never live (a boy), in a time I'll never live (the late 60s). And somehow made it so good.
Over two years ago I read Wednesday Wars by the same author and loved it. I later gifted it to my mother who was a teacher and she also really enjoyed it. This one takes a periphery character from that book and gives him his own story (and you absolutely don't need to read both or in any order, they have basically no impact on each other).
Doug Swieteck is a middle school boy who just relocated with his family from Long Island to somewhere else in New York State. His older brother seems to hate him and take all the good things Doug has. His oldest brother who:
“Lucas is my oldest brother who stopped beating me up a year and a half ago when the United States Army drafted him to beat up Vietcong instead”His Dad is...not great. An alcoholic who isn't very involved in their family life. Their Mom tries to make the best of their circumstances.
Doug needs to get away from his house so he ends up spending a lot of time at the library, on the one day a week they are open (the idea of which makes me a little panicky, very glad that is not the case here), gets a job delivering groceries on Saturday mornings, and makes a new friend, kinda.
The book covers pretty much the whole school year, from the heat of late summer to the freezing cold of winter and onto spring. Doug has challenges in school, with his job, with his family. Not much seems to go his way. But then he befriends his grocery delivery clients, even babysitting for the kids of one and helping another with household chores. He befriends a librarian (but only one of them, the other is never a fan of him). He has a few teachers that really see his potential.
Then his brother comes home from Vietnam and there is a whole new set of problems.
Despite never being a 13 year old boy, I really felt for Doug. I don't know what sort of life was typical in the late 60s but it seems like he got dealt a mostly bad hand, although he generally is trying to make the best of it. Which, no matter what we are going through is something we should be trying for too. It seems every time he mostly resolves one problem another pops up. Which is how life works but I was really rooting for him.
The book is written from his point of view and it feels like a slightly more eloquent teenage boy. I enjoyed his sarcasm and changing moods (probably less so if I was experiencing them in person, ask me again in 8 years when I have a teenage boy. YIKES.) This book took me awhile to get into but then I blew through the second half in less than half a day. It was well written and I could really feel his emotions.
You probably weren't a teenage boy in the late 60s either but this still takes a time period and a life that I'll never experience and made me feel, briefly, like I had. It's the kind of book that made me feel a little better about the state of the world. If this kid can make it, we all probably can too.
Goodreads | Amazon
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