In 1968, Doug Sweiteck, a fourteen-year-old skinny thug and prankster, seems to have everything stacked against him.
His alcoholic brute of a father beats his family. And—Surprise! Surprise! Pops just lost his job again. Forced to move to stupid Marysville, Doug is without a single friend. His mother is okay but ineffectual against dad. She's just trying to keep the family together. His mean older brother is in Vietnam, and the next brother is a real bully.
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Then, in front of the library, he meets Lil Spencer, a fiery girl who challenges him at every turn. He enters the library—a first for him—and upstairs finds a book containing plates of the original illustrations of John James Audubon. When Mr. Powell, the librarian, sees Doug’s interest in the drawings, he realizes that Doug is a hidden artist, and begins teaching Doug to draw, and Doug slowly starts to thaw.
Lil helps Doug get a job delivering for her
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