Bibliopath #4: In which a boy's life is *actually* changed by bird paintings
Dear reader,
Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a mismatch between the subject line and last week's Bibliopath, simply because I changed my mind about the book between thew writing of the subject line and the writing of the email. That won't happen again. Probably.
Anyway, this book is for Duncan, but also Nicci, and Kathleen—anyone else who enjoys young adult fiction really.
A few newsletters ago, I recommended The Wednesday Wars, where author Gary D. Schmidt managed to take what could be an incredibly stodgy plot device—teenage boy is forced to learn Shakespeare with his teacher, reflects on his life through the readings of the Bard—and turned it into one of my favourite YA books. There is an incredible lightness of touch in how he uses the device, sonorous narrative voice and just a freewheeling humour about it all. (Laurel, you would love this if you missed it first time around!)
And if that weren't enough, our book for today is Okay for Now, which is somewhere between a spinoff and a sequel to Wednesday Wars. You certainly don't have to have read the first to read this, as we follow one of the secondary characters from WW, Doug Swieteck as he moves to a new town. There's a similar device—Doug learns to be an artist through confronting the paintings of Audubon—and possibly a bigger risk that Schmidt will have overstayed his welcome.
But it all works. Amazingly well. Somehow Schmidt manages to convey the language of paintings, the inner rage-and-rust of being a kid on the outer, the Vietnam-era politics. And it's by turns funny, and heartbreaking. It's everything I want in a YA book—heck, it's everything I want in a book book.
Seriously, don't make me buy it for you, because I will. I will do that.
And you, dear reader: what book are you tempted to buy for other people who won't take your word for it?
Guan