Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

It's 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War, with the first lunar landing on the horizon. When eighth grader Doug Swietek  and his family move to a small town in upstate New York after his bad-tempered father loses his job, Doug immediately dubs the town "stupid."

After he meets local girl Lil, everything changes. Lil challenges him to prove he is not the "skinny thug" everyone assumes he is. Following her into the library, he finds the works of Audubon on display and befriends a librarian, who coaxes him to try drawing. Doug's artistic efforts parallel his struggles to fit into the town and rise above the preconceptions people have about his family. When Doug says, about the first Audubon painting he sees, "This bird was falling and there wasn't a single thing in the world that cared at all," it's clear he's talking about himself as much as he is the Arctic tern.

Doug's journey to self-acceptance isn't a straight one, and several times he proves his theory that "when things start to go pretty good, something usually happens to turn everything bad," but readers will root for him even when he stops rooting for himself.

I know that a book about a boy who likes paintings sounds lame- but it isn't at all. You will root for Doug, you will care about Doug, you will want the best for Doug. And you may learn to appreciate Audubon's artwork too. Maybe.

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