16 September 2010 OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt, Clarion, April 2011, 368p., ISBN: 9780547152608

"Their father's hell

Did slowly go by"

-- Graham Nash, "Teach Your Children"

"Every few minutes I went up the six steps to the library doors and tried them and they were, of course, still locked so I'd go sit down.  I waited for what must have been an hour, until finally the woman with her glasses looped around her neck -- she already had them looped around her neck even though she wasn't even in the library yet -- she came walking up the block and climbed the steps and looked back down at me like I was trespassing.

"'The Marysville Free Public Library does not open until 10:00,' she said.

"'I know,' I said.

"'These steps were not made for people to sit on,' she said, 'especially since you might get in the way of others who would wish to use them.'

"I looked up and down the block, then moved way over to the edge of the steps.  'Dang,' I said.  'I didn't see all the people jamming to get inside.  Don't they all know that the Marysville Free Public Library does not open until 10:00?'

"She sniffed.  I'm not lying.  She sniffed.  'Go find some other place to be rude,' she said.

"'Is this one reserved for you?' I said.

"I know.  I was sounding like Lucas."

After reading OKAY FOR NOW for the first time, and before beginning to write about it, I went back and read THE WEDNESDAY WARS for the seventh time.  This was not a difficult task.  It is (obviously) a real favorite of mine.  It was just the other day, in fact, while meeting with the chair of the Department of Literacy, Elementary, and Early Education at Sonoma State, that I'd been gushing about and recommending that she read THE WEDNESDAY WARS.  I explained to her that it is one of my favorite children's books of all time, in part because of its being the most brilliant and scathing piece of children's literature about the American Dream that I have ever encountered, and in part because it makes me laugh several million times and, in several places, also makes me cry.  And with its being one of my favorite books of all time, I am not going to suggest that anybody miss out on reading or rereading it (THE WEDNESDAY WARS which is Holling Hoodhood's story set during the 1967-8 school year) and just read OKAY FOR NOW, which is Doug Swieteck's story, set the following school year.  So I'm strongly advising you to read them both.  

The wisdom of my first going back and rereading THE WEDNESDAY WARS (Did I mention that it was for the seventh time?) before writing about this companion novel becomes quickly apparent.  For instance, I can point out to you that apart from the first three sentences, the entire first page and a half of THE WEDNESDAY WARS is devoted to the world of Doug Swieteck.  Specifically, it is about Doug Swieteck doing (to the unlucky Mrs. Sidman) Number 6 on his "list of 410 ways to get a teacher to hate you."

As one continues to read (or reread) THE WEDNESDAY WARS, Doug and (even more so) his unnamed older brother acquire a reputation for their legendary questionable behavior which is approached in its jaw-dropping immensity only by that of the school's infamous duo of escaped pet rats. 

Then something happens, beginning on page 79 of THE WEDNESDAY WARS, that causes us to perceive Doug Swieteck in a rather different light.  We begin to get the picture that he is a complex character. 

To recognize Gary Schmidt's inspiration for now writing Doug Swieteck's story is rather easy when you are watching for it.  Then when, on page twelve of OKAY FOR NOW, we encounter Holling Hoodhood walking up Doug's street carrying a paper bag, it is easy after reading THE WEDNESDAY WARS (even if it only one's first or second time) to be totally blown away by what is in that paper bag that Holling gives to Doug and what that means about Holling's feelings about Doug Swieteck  I like that there is also a significant connection to be made between OKAY FOR NOW and another of my favorite books of all time, SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson.  This connection has to do with the therapeutic value of art.  A difference between the two stories is that here the teacher figure is actually a librarian (another one who wears glasses looped around his neck), and the subject of the art by which Doug is inspired is birds, specifically those painted by John James Audubon.

"And then you looked down at the second wing, which was crushed.

"And then you looked at the belly of the bird, which was spouting thick, red blood all over the dark feathers.

"And then you looked beneath the bird, where the blood was in a puddle.

"And then you looked at the bird's head.  After that, that's all you looked at.

"I would have given Joe Pepitone's jacket to save this bird.

"His beak was wide open and his tongue was stretched out into a point.  He was screeching while his blood ran.  His head was pulled far back, like he was taking one last look at the sky that he would never fly in again.  And his round eye told you he knew that everything was ruined forever.

"It was a horrible picture, and I couldn't stop looking at it."

Some of us who are big fans of Gary Schmidt have come to expect certain payoffs from his books.  One is his good-natured lampooning of classic Western literature which gets woven into the schooling of his young characters.  In THE WEDNESDAY WARS the target is Shakespeare.  In TROUBLE it is Chaucer.  Here in OKAY FOR NOW it is Charlotte Bronte.  And just like Holling unexpectedly finds himself in the middle of a theatrical production in THE WEDNESDAY WARS (in an outfit that would cause any self-respecting middle school boy to die a thousand deaths), Doug Swieteck will find himself in similar straits.

And, as with Holling and Meryl Lee in WEDNESDAY WARS, there is a girl in OKAY FOR NOW whom Doug gets to know...

What makes Doug Swieteck tick?  As is the case with THE WEDNESDAY WARS, we are rewarded here by paying close attention to the words and actions of the main character's father -- how he interacts with his children and how he models being a man.  The importance of what Gary Schmidt repeatedly succeeds at doing through his portrayals of the fathers of his main characters --  and the impact of those fathers upon their respective children -- can not be overstated.   

"Watch the mountain turn to dust and blow away

Oh Lord, you know there's got to be a better way" 

-- Tommy James and the Shondells, "Sweet Cherry Wine" (1969)

It is sometimes kind of scary to already be so old as to be able to write about historical fiction set in a time that one lived through years earlier.  (I was just asking my library school students: If I am older that Green Eggs and Ham, what does that make me???)  Irregardless, it is pure bliss to be back in the late Sixties world of Holling Hoodhood and Doug Swieteck.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he will Pick their books.  You can figure that any review was written after reading and dog-earring a free copy received.  Richie retains these review copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools and libraries.