Description

Like a fourteen-year-old who only moved into a new city, without any friends and a louse for an older sibling, Doug Swieteck has all of the numbers piled against him. Thus starts a coming-of-age masterwork saturated in equal parts humor and tragedy from Newbery Honor champion H Deb. Schmidt. As Doug challenges to become significantly more than the “skinny thug” that his instructors and law enforcement believe him to be, he finds an unlikely friend in Lil Spicer—a hot woman who “smelled like daisies might smell when they were developing in a large area under a cleaning atmosphere following a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the power to withstand an abusive dad, the accusations of the complete city, and the return of his oldest brother, permanently damaged, from Vietnam.