Okay For Now

           Okay for Now, written by Gary D. Schmidt, is about a boy named Doug Swieteck who has to move to Marysville. He didn't want to move because he has to leave all of his friends and his home. As he was about to leave, one of his friends gave him a jacket that belonged to Joe Pepitone, who was a baseball player for the Yankees. Doug previously had thrown a baseball with Joe Pepitone and when they were done, Joe gave Doug one of his baseball caps. This jacket meant a lot to Doug because sadly, one of Doug's brothers took his hat and traded it with some friends and pretty soon the hat was passed around town and ended up in the gutter. When he arrived in Marysville at his new house, he called it a dump. Soon he started to get used to his new home, and began to meet new people, and  received a job to deliver food to his neighbors every Saturday. Doug also developed a talent and passion for art by going to the library to draw pictures of birds with help from Mr. Powell, his teacher. Summer came to an end and Doug had to go to school. He wasn't very excited because it's a new school and he didn't have very many friends. The beginning of the school year was rough because he had a lot of after school detentions and fights with his peers. However as the school year went on, he learned new things and started to enjoy school more. There is much more to come, read this book and find out what happened to Doug.

         In the book, Doug's brother came home from Vietnam and he was faced with a lot of challenges. After being home for awhile, he decided to go out looking for work even though he had to use a wheelchair. When he first started looking for work he was declined because he couldn't use his legs.  Lucas, Doug's brother, never gave up. He kept on going out every morning looking for work even though he was pretty sure that he was going to get declined. I thought the author explained his opinions really well through this part of the book. The author was saying to never give up; always keep trying. Additionally, there were some robberies at different parts of the book, and the police always thought that it was Doug's brother, Chris, because he was always causing trouble. Because of that, Doug's teachers and neighbors were not very nice to Doug because they thought that his brother was a thief. The author was saying not to judge others. Just because a family member might or might not have done something doesn't mean that you should not like them or treat them differently.

    The book was very entertaining because it was suspenseful and there was always something new happening. For example, when Doug was doing his deliveries, there was a woman that he had to deliver food to. Everyone said that she wasn't very nice and never let anyone in, so when Doug went to Mrs. Windermere's house it was suspenseful because the reader didn't know what she was going to do. Was she going to let him in or yell at him? Another example is the uncertainity if someone is going to find Joe Pepitone's jacket, because the reader knows how much the hat meant to Doug and they don't want him to lose another one of his prize possesions. The book was filled with many examples of suspense.

      I really enjoyed this book. Since this book was about a boy in eighth grade it was easy to relate with him. There were some slow parts at the very beginning that were hard to get into, and the chapters were long so it was hard to finish a chapter some times. But as the book went on it started to go by faster and was more entertaining to read. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys real-life fiction and a little bit of mystery. A