![]() ![]() This is Schmidt’s best novel yet-darker than The Wednesday Wars and written with more restraint, but with the same expert attention to voice, character and big ideas. He meets pretty Lillian Spicer, just the feisty friend Doug needs, and a whole cast of small-town characters opens Doug to what he might be in the world. Powell, the town librarian, teaches Doug to paint and see the world as an artist. Each chapter opens with a print of a John James Audubon painting, and Mr. Readers of the Newbery Honor–winning The Wednesday Wars (2007) will remember Doug, now less edgy and gradually more open to the possibilities of life in a small town. He hates “stupid Marysville,” so far from home and his beloved Yankee Stadium, and he may have moved away, but his cruel father and abusive brothers are still with him. The Vietnam War and Apollo 11 are in the background, and between a war in a distant land and a spacecraft heading to the moon, Doug Swieteck starts a new life in tiny Marysville, N.Y. ![]()
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