Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt; Clarion Books: New York, 2011; $16.99 I looked forward to reading this book about a thirteen- year-old boy, thinking that I’d be able to relate to him right away. I couldn’t have been more wrong because his life was so different from mine. However, the author, Gary Schmidt, brings you right into the story, sharing the character’s inner thoughts so you feel you are living the scenes with him. He wrote about the main character, Doug Swieteck, looking at an Audubon bird painting, saying, “But Audubon knew something about composition: he kept the top of the bird’s back as straight as the horizon, right smack in the middle of the scene, with a beak held up just as flat and just as straight, and an eye that said, ‘I know where I belong.’ You couldn’t help but be a little jealous of this bird.” I knew then that my journey through the book would be watching Doug find out where he belonged. Doug is an eighth-grader whose abusive father loses his job in the big city. He moves his whole family to a small town to work at a mill. Doug isn’t excited about the move, and when his bullying brother is blamed for a series of thefts in town, people start looking down on him. The only thing Doug likes about this small town is the book of Audubon’s bird prints in the library. Unfortunately, the town has hit a financial rough patch and is selling off the prints, one by one. Doug is distraught and, with the assistance of the kind librarian, Mr. Powell, finds himself learning the drawing style of Audubon and bringing the original prints back together. This leads Doug and his new friend, Lil, on an interesting series of adventures with different characters around town. The plot is further complicated because Doug’s oldest brother comes home from Vietnam in a wheelchair and has to fit into this new town and family as well. There are many plots woven throughout the book, but the main themes center on family relationships, bullies, illiteracy, and, most of all, the hope to rise above these things. Doug is an outsider in a new town where he must adapt to relationships, old and new. His only positive relationships come from unusual places—his powerless mother, who manages to hang onto hope in spite of it all, a spitfire girl named Lil Spencer (his love interest), whose zest for life inspires him to see the good in the world, and a teacher and librarian who try to pull the best out of him. This was an emotional roller-coaster ride for me, swinging from humor to heartbreak, from hope to despair, sometimes in the same paragraph. It takes place in the late 1960s, during Vietnam and the preparation for the Apollo flight, which gives an interesting backdrop for the story since I wasn’t alive then and I was able to learn about life during this era. The Audubon prints, pictured at the start of each chapter, seem to mirror what is happening in Doug’s life. As he comes up with ways to reconstruct the Audubon book, he is also making sense of his own life and future. I grew right along with Doug throughout the story. At the end, when Lil said they could move together somewhere else and he said he wanted to stay in Marysville, it shocked me. I guess everybody had grown on him. Finishing the book, I wish they would have used a different cover. The paper bag over a boy’s head doesn’t reflect the complexity and impact of the book. This is a book that will affect you to the core and I highly recommend reading it. Ryan Traynor, 12Emerald Hills, California
Book-Reviews
Tuesdays at the Castle
Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George; Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers: New York, 2011; $16.99 Jessica Day George’s Tuesdays at the Castle is a wonderful, heart-pounding story about a young girl who needs to protect her home, the Castle Glower. When an evil man named Khelsh tries to take over the castle, it is up to Celie to stop him. In this story, I felt that I could relate a lot to Celie because we are both eleven years old. In the beginning of the story, Celie wishes people would treat her like an adult, not a young girl. She is brought down by the way her siblings don’t treat her as an equal. I could definitely understand how she felt. Even though I am the oldest child in my family, there are times when I feel that I am not being told certain information, because people think I may not understand it, just what Celie feels in the story. For example, when Rolf was sitting on his throne, looking depressed and frightened, Celie asked what was going on. In reply, her sister Lilah told her that she would never understand. Celie was very hurt by what Lilah said, and thought, how could she not understand something if she didn’t even know what it was? Despite everybody thinking Celie is not mature, she possesses a certain power, a power to almost control Castle Glower. For example, if Celie trips and falls off the balcony, the Castle will make sure she has a soft landing. The Castle does not do this to anyone else, unless it is someone very close to Celie. The Castle likes Celie the best, which makes her feel special. It must feel extraordinary for Celie to know that the Castle has a special relationship with her, and only her. I’m glad the author chose to write that the Castle liked Celie the best, because it seems like someone really understands her and cares for her. Of course her parents and siblings care for her, but her connection with the Castle is different, more touching and valuable. One part of the story I found to be particularly good was the part in which Celie and her siblings started pranking the Council members, who had betrayed the royal family and supported the evil Khelsh. I tend to like a little bit of humor, so this part was perfect for me! I especially liked the prank where Celie and her siblings stole the Council members’ clothes and loosened the stitching. I laughed out loud at the part when Lord Feen raised his hand to speak, and the clothing ripped right under his armpit. The way the author described his embarrassment was hilarious! At first, it was a little confusing to follow the story when the author was explaining about the different rooms Castle Glower had, and how it would add new rooms and take away old rooms. I had to re-read some parts of the description of Castle Glower and was a little disoriented when the description would change every so often due to the addition or loss of a room. That was one of the only faults I felt the story had. Tuesdays at the Castle was a lot of fun to read, and I enjoyed it very much. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a well-written, fanciful, fast-paced story with a dash of humor! Rachel Halpern, 11Glen Rock, New Jersey
My Life with the Lincolns
My Life with the Lincolns, by Gayle Brandeis; Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2010; $16.99 Wilhelmina Edelman has three goals for the summer: to get through age twelve without dying, to keep her mom from becoming insane and going to a “nuthouse,” and to stop her dad from getting shot. As you might know, normal twelve-year-olds don’t usually have these types of summer goals. But Mina isn’t a normal twelve-year-old. She is Willie Lincoln reincarnated. Actually, her whole family used to be the Lincolns. Her dad’s initials are ABE, and Mina and her sisters have girl versions of the names of the Lincoln boys. But being in a reincarnated family has its drawbacks. Mina has to keep her family from coming to the same sticky end as the Lincolns. The book is set in 1966, and the Civil Rights Movement is well under way. Mina, being a girl from a white family, offers an interesting perspective on all the conflict going on. Mina’s father is a strong supporter of black rights and takes her on protest marches in secret. Once, they even went to an overnight vigil. At the vigil, the protesters kneeled on the ground until very late, even though people were crowded around them, taunting them and yelling offensive things. But the protesters persevered. This shows just how determined they were to get the rights they deserved, rights that should have been theirs at birth. Another event that was occurring during that time was the Vietnam War. Mina and her sister sometimes played Vietnam with the boys next door, screaming gibberish and throwing fake grenades in imitation of their idea of the Vietnamese people. Also, her neighbor’s father is sent to Vietnam but comes back after losing one of his arms. I felt so bad for him, and I could only imagine the pain and hardship the man was going through. A section of the book that really caught my attention was when Mina’s older sister, Roberta, falls in love with a young black man named Thomas. When they run away together and are found again, Mina’s mother is absolutely livid. She calls Thomas a predator and a menace and accuses him of having terrible intentions. I think she was being very prejudiced and racist because Thomas was a fine young man, and she surely would have not have been as enraged if he had been white. When Mina’s father fires their black cleaning woman (he says he is “emancipating” her), Mina’s mom becomes vastly angry with him, like a spewing cauldron. When she finds out her husband has been lying to her and taking Mina to dangerous protest marches, the cauldron begins foaming and seething. Then, when Roberta runs away with Thomas, the cauldron churns and froths, and all the contents gush out. This shows Mina’s parents’ deteriorating relationship, and eventually it gets so bad that Mina’s dad moves out. This book was truly excellent. It provided a different approach to the Civil Rights Movement and still described in detail all the events that were occurring. It also showed a child’s point of view to everything going on. People, some even from Mina’s own neighborhood, come to the protest marches just to throw rocks, bricks, and even Molotov cocktails at the protesters and to shout in their faces about White Power and other awful things. But back to the ongoing Lincoln problem. Will Mina die an early death like Willie Lincoln? Or will she be able to keep history from repeating itself? Ana Sofía Uzsoy, 12Cary, North Carolina
