Doug Switek’s life isn’t all that easy anyway: one brother serves in Vietnam, the other has criminal tendencies, and it’s better not to argue with his father at all—he’ll hit you right away. And then there’s the move to the stupid little town of Marysville. But in Marysville, what awaits Doug is not only something foreign, painful and bitter, but also something truly beautiful. So, for example, he will see Audubon's engravings and begin to draw, take part in a Broadway production, and most importantly, meet Lil, who has the greenest eyes in the world. “As Long as Okay” is the second part of a trilogy conceived by Gary Schmidt, which began with the story “Wednesday Battles” "(but the main character has changed; in "Battles" Doug Switek played a minor role). As in the first part, Gary Schmidt explores the life of an ordinary American family in the late 1960s, a period of historical upheaval and war, intergenerational gaps, powerful civil movements and disruption of the usual way of life. The Vietnam War and the Cold War, civil protests and the flower child movement, domestic violence and patriarchal values are not just historical settings against which the book is set. In “As Long as Normal,” the breath of history touched every character. And everyone will have to figure out how to move on with their lives. However, “For Now It’s Normal” is not a historical story about the events of half a century ago. This is primarily a book for teenagers about teenagers. Eighth-grader Doug Svitek, a bully and a poor student, has already learned a lot about the harshness and injustice of life. But at the moment when it seems that there is no way out, Gary Schmidt, like a true humanist, comes to the aid of the hero. For Doug, familiarity with the works of the American artist John James Audubon, reflection on engravings, and careful copying of the master's works became the key to discovering himself and the world. And the desperate and, at first glance, doomed to failure attempts to put together the sold-out engravings from Audubon’s book were the first real victory in life. Along the way, Doug Switek met new friends and his first love. Gary Schmidt offers a time-tested recipe: art, friendship and love - and we hope that it will help not only the characters in the book, but also the readers. Of course, to all this you need to add excellent language (excellently conveyed by Vladimir Babkov), a twisting plot and an excellent a sense of humor is an invariable component of all Gary Schmidt's books.