Is about 8th grader, Doug Swietack, who has recently moved to a new town in upstate New York in the 1960’s. His father is abusive and one of his older brothers is taking after the nasty father. The other brother is away fighting in Vietnam and returns about halfway into the story. Doug attempts to navigate his new town, new school and teachers while trying to hide some secrets he’d rather noone else knew about him. This gets him into trouble with his father, teachers and principal. The bright spots in his life are his loving mother, the cute girl whose family operates the grocery store that hires Doug to deliver groceries…. and Audubon. Doug is fascinated by Audubon’s drawings he discovers in the library. He feels drawn (!) to the artist and wants to learn to draw. Luckily, he finds a tutor in an older library gentleman employee who takes him under his wing.
I understand that Doug is a character in Schmidt’s “Wednesday Wars” and I’d like to go back and read that one now, too. Marysville, NY is filled with odd characters all of whom seemed changed for the better by Doug Swietack.