40 Fun Facts About Okay for Now

Which secret does Doug Swieteck hide from his new teachers and classmates in Okay for Now?

He cannot read, so when a teacher calls on him Doug will do anything to dodge it. His author modelled that habit on a troubled boy he remembered from his own school days.

Why are pages missing from the Audubon book that Doug Swieteck finds in the library in Okay for Now?

The town sold them one at a time to raise money. Single plates fetch so much that few complete copies of the real book survive anywhere.

Which Audubon bird does Doug Swieteck learn to draw first in Okay for Now?

Arctic Tern is the plate Doug sees as a bird plunging helplessly into the sea. His author points out that it is really just diving down for something to eat.

Which historic event do Doug Swieteck and his science class follow the build-up to in Okay for Now?

The first Moon landing hangs over the whole story. Space flights went up every couple of months on the way to it, giving Mr. Ferris's class plenty to track.

What job does Lil Spicer's father give Doug Swieteck at the family deli in Okay for Now?

Delivering groceries takes Doug into homes all over his new neighborhood. That is how he meets customers like the fearsome Mrs. Windermere.

Okay for Now is a companion to which Newbery Honor novel, where Doug Swieteck first appeared as a classroom menace?

The Wednesday Wars cast Doug as the nemesis of its hero. He was a supporting troublemaker there before getting a whole novel to himself.

Which librarian in Okay for Now spots Doug Swieteck's talent and teaches him to draw Audubon's birds?

Mr. Powell is the one who starts calling Doug an artist. He keeps the lessons going even when most of his neighbors turn against the boy.

In Okay for Now, which classic novel does Doug Swieteck's English class study in an abridged version?

Jane Eyre starts out as a chore for Doug. He ends up deciding it is not such a bad book, and borrows its habit of speaking straight to the audience.

To which small upstate New York town does Doug Swieteck's family move in Okay for Now?

Marysville is the place Doug keeps calling stupid. Its library, its deli and a green-eyed girl slowly change his mind.

Which American author wrote Okay for Now, the story of Doug Swieteck and a book of bird paintings?

Its author taught English in Michigan for decades and used to mock writers of sequels. Then Doug's voice took over a story Gary D. Schmidt had already started twice.

Why does Doug Swieteck refuse to take off his shirt in front of classmates in Okay for Now?

Doug keeps his shirt on to hide a tattoo, a large and humiliating one his father forced him to get. Once classmates find out, school becomes a fight for survival.

What has Doug Swieteck's oldest brother, Lucas, lost when he returns from Vietnam in Okay for Now?

Both legs are gone above the knee. Doug, once the smallest target in the house, becomes the one strong enough to push Lucas back into life.

Which of Doug Swieteck's relatives is blamed for the break-in at Spicer's Deli in Okay for Now?

His middle brother, Christopher, gets the blame. Soon the principal and many of Doug's new neighbors treat Doug as a criminal too.

Mr. Ferris, the science teacher in Okay for Now, keeps which toy named Clarence in his classroom?

A rocking horse called Clarence really existed. The author's own high school teacher, also a Mr. Ferris, had a Clarence too, and was among the best teachers he ever had.

Okay for Now opens with Doug Swieteck boasting that which New York Yankees player once gave him a cap?

Joe Pepitone's cap mattered because everything else Doug owned was a hand-me-down. Then his brother swiped it and traded it for cigarettes.

In Okay for Now, which visitor from his old school gives Doug Swieteck a Yankees jacket on moving day?

Holling Hoodhood makes his only appearance in the story here. The jacket he hands over had been a gift to him from a Yankees star.

On which single day of the week is the public library open in Doug Swieteck's new town in Okay for Now?

Saturday is the only day the doors open, a sign of how short of money the place is. Doug's drawing lessons become a weekly ritual.

Okay for Now was named a finalist for which major American literary prize for young people's literature?

National Book Award judges shortlisted it in 2011. The prize itself went to Thanhha Lai's verse novel Inside Out & Back Again.

At the company picnic in Okay for Now, Doug Swieteck's team beats his father's in a quiz about which sport?

Baseball is Doug's specialist subject. His father, who had his heart set on winning, insists afterwards that the contest was fixed.

Where does Doug Swieteck's family live before the move upstate that opens Okay for Now?

Long Island is home until Doug's father loses his job there. The author was born on the same island, in the hamlet of Hicksville.

In Okay for Now, Lil Spicer, who has never shown any interest in acting, lands a role in what?

A Broadway play arrives late in the story, and Doug ends up with an offstage part in it too. More than one reviewer called the twist implausible.

Which school year is Doug Swieteck about to start when his family moves upstate in Okay for Now?

Eighth grade begins badly for Doug. He is the only new student in his year, and several adults have already decided he is trouble.

Which staff member at Doug Swieteck's school in Okay for Now is a veteran haunted by memories of Vietnam?

The gym coach starts out as Doug's tormentor. Things improve once Doug helps in class and introduces him to Lucas, who carries the same memories.

In Okay for Now, a drinking buddy finds Doug Swieteck's father a job at what kind of workplace?

A paper mill bearing the Ballard name is the reason for the move upstate. Its company picnic later hands Doug a rare public win.

At the company picnic in Okay for Now, Doug Swieteck teams up with an old man playing which game?

Horseshoes brings Doug together with the old man who becomes his partner in the picnic quiz. One reviewer praised the author for making the game fun on the page.

Why are the pages so huge in Audubon's The Birds of America, the book Doug Swieteck loves?

Every species is life-size, which called for sheets about 39 inches tall. All 435 prints were then colored by hand.

Why does Doug Swieteck's father lose his job just before the family moves in Okay for Now?

He mouths off to his boss and is fired. The same quick temper, usually expressed with his fists, hangs over everyone in the Swieteck house.

Before Okay for Now, Doug Swieteck was notorious in an earlier novel for listing 410 ways to do what?

Get a teacher to hate you was the aim of the list. By the end of that story Doug had mostly seen the error of his ways, which left room to make him a hero.

Which third book in the series that includes Okay for Now has Meryl Lee Kowalski as its main character?

Just Like That arrived in 2021, a decade after Doug's story. Each of the three books can be enjoyed without the others.

John James Audubon, whose birds captivate Doug Swieteck in Okay for Now, was born in which present-day country?

Haiti, then the French colony of Saint-Domingue, was his birthplace. He sailed for America at 18 on a false passport to dodge Napoleon's draft.

Doug Swieteck's junior high school in Okay for Now is named after which American author?

Washington Irving Junior High is where the principal lumps Doug in with his accused brother. One science teacher pointedly refuses to do the same.

The author of Okay for Now spent decades teaching English at which Christian school in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

Calvin College, now Calvin University, is where he taught writing and medieval literature. Its theater company later put his earlier Newbery Honor novel on stage.

The author of Okay for Now called his early drafts boring until he made which change?

He wrote it in first person on his third start, and the voice that came out was Doug's. He resisted at first because he never wanted to write a series.

The author of Okay for Now got the idea from an Audubon volume in a struggling library in which Michigan city?

Flint had what he called a lovely later edition in a library short of money. A radio story about a school debating the sale of a donated mural supplied the other half.

Audubon's The Birds of America, the giant book in Okay for Now, is known by which nickname for its page size?

Double Elephant Folio is the name of the outsize paper it was printed on. Copies are so prized that one sold for $11.5 million in 2010.

Mrs. Merriam, the crusty librarian in Okay for Now, is waiting for news of which relative missing in Vietnam?

Her son is missing in action, which goes some way to explaining her sharp tongue. One reviewer praised how each sour adult in the story is given a humanizing detail.

Which Audubon plate does Doug Swieteck spot in the home of the fearsome Mrs. Windermere in Okay for Now?

Red-Throated Diver shows a mother bird beside her chick. Doug thinks she looks ready to take off, and Mrs. Windermere tells him he has it all wrong.

In Okay for Now, Doug Swieteck proves his worth by fetching help when a small boy suffers what?

An asthma attack strikes the youngest child of a family Doug has befriended. The author wanted Doug to find out he could be competent at something that mattered.

What quest does Doug Swieteck set himself on learning that the library's Audubon book is incomplete?

His mission is to get every plate back, with no money and no plan. The author says a boy that beaten-up wanted just one thing in his life to be whole.

Early in Okay for Now, what does Doug Swieteck wish he could draw after watching his mother one morning?

Her smile is something Doug itches to capture. He catches his own fingers moving again, as if they already held a pencil.