okay for now

Okay for Now

by Gary D. Schmidt

Synopsis from Goodreads: Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

What I think: Gary D. Schmidt is a very good writer.  His sentences are clean and crisp and full of emotion.  For example, I love that Doug says "terrific" as a single-worded sentence when everything around him is quite the opposite.