50 pages • 1 hour read
Olugbemisola Rhuday-PerkovichOperation Sisterhood
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Bo spends some time with Dougie before she and Lola move the last of their things out of their apartment. Bo and Dougie promise to visit each other. As Bo helps Lola with packing, she brings up their summer trip to Paris and Lagos, and Lola promises that nothing is changing.
Lola and Bo pick up some rugelach and join the Harlem Homeschool picnic in Central Park. Lola connected with the group when Bo was little, even though she was not a homeschooler. Bo reflects on how she finds something new to love about Central Park each time she visits, and how living in New York City lends itself to continuous discoveries.
The Dwyer-Saunders girls meet Bo and Lola at the park, and Bo introduces them to the Harlem Homeschoolers. The entire group gets along well immediately. As they eventually settle down to eat, Bo, Sunday, and the twins discuss Bill and Lola’s wedding party. The adults want something low-key, but the girls disagree.
Sunday suggests they take over the party planning and present it as a summer freeschooling project so the adults okay it. Bo hesitantly points out that this will take a lot of planning and organization, which is not the girls’ forte. However, they are not offended, and eagerly ask Bo to take charge, as these are her strengths.
Bo passes around the rugelach to the other girls’ delight. She tells them about all the bakeries around town she loves and frequents, and Sunday comments on how Bo’s arrival has made their family perfect. Bo feels “warm and buttery and sweet” inside (90).
Chapter 12 Summary
Bo reflects on how, despite her initial perceptions of freeschooling, she has to work harder and go more places than she ever had to in regular school. She writes about this in her daily journal, noting how difficult it is for her when things are “fluid.” Bo does not like unpredictability and ambiguity. She also worries about something bad happening, like it had in the past with Bill, when an accident left him needing to use a wheelchair. Bo reflects on how freeschooling can be fun, especially learning along with her sisters, but she misses special alone time with her mother.
Bo and Sunday take a break from work and head downstairs to look for snacks. They are out of cookies, and Bo decides to make a fresh batch. Sunday asks to watch this time so she can learn. Wanting to just be alone, Bo reflects on how her days now feel like a mix of happiness and sadness.
Chapter 13 Summary
Bo and her sisters finish cleaning the chicken coop, one of their shared chores, and relax outside. A couple of young children drawing on the sidewalk ask them questions and are drawn into conversation, so the girls end up joining the kids in their sidewalk art. Sometime later, Bo realizes she has been enjoying this, and is relaxing even though she is not baking.
The girls present the idea of a wedding block party as a freeschooling project to the parents. Bill and Lola are touched and appreciative, but also point out the party is an ambitious project. When the girls insist they can handle it, Bill and Lola ask to speak to their respective daughters alone.
Lola tells Bo that money is tight at the moment. Since they are now part of a larger family, she has had to reconfigure her budget; they even have to postpone their Paris and Lagos trips. Even though Bill insists Lola and Bo still go, it does not feel right to Lola to do a trip with just the two of them when the others are struggling. Bo is disappointed but says she understands, and Lola promises to talk more about this later.
Chapter 14 Summary
Although the presentation is a big hit, the adults are still ambiguous about whether the girls can do the party or not. Bo’s sisters comfort her about her postponed trip, and they successfully cheer her up by playing music together. As Bo laughs, she thinks about how living with these girls is a trip in itself.
Papa Charles returns home in a foul mood one day. Curious, the girls decide to eavesdrop, hiding in various corners of the house. They overhear that Papa Charles has lost his job writing for a television drama. Bo realizes that money is tight, with Bill’s bookstore not bringing in much either. Suddenly, there is a loud crash from the kitchen, and Bo rushes there with everyone else.
Chapter 15 Summary
In the kitchen, all the adults are gathered around Lil, who has been discovered after accidentally breaking some dishes. The adults angrily confront the girls about eavesdropping, but even as the girls apologize, they demand to know what is going on. The adults reluctantly reveal that money is tight, and they have to restructure their family budget. However, they also rush to allay Bo’s fears that they will have to split up and move house. The girls are given work as a consequence for their eavesdropping, including presentations on “the differences between a spirit of inquiry and snooping” (130), and reports on age-appropriate techniques for stress management.
The girls go for a walk in the park together after dinner to discuss what happened. They wonder if they should stop pressing the wedding party idea, but Sunday insists people need to celebrate even when times are hard, and Bo agrees. The girls spontaneously start singing and harmonizing together, with Bo tapping out a rhythm on a bench. A crowd gathers to watch the girls sing.
Chapter 16 Summary
At Lola’s behest, Bo joins Lee at the animal shelter where she volunteers. As they walk one of the dogs, Lee points out to Bo all her favorite neighborhood spots. They run into a serious, bossy little girl named Amy Johnson and two boys their age, Marcus Semple and Kareem Bullock. Bo and Lee engage in some good-natured ribbing with the boys.
Before the girls head home, they overhear Dr. Coleman and Hila, the assistant, discussing how the shelter is running low on funds and might need to close down soon. A dismayed Lee is cheered up when a man drops off a puppy after the adults leave, and she thinks she can take it home.
As the girls walk Barkerson, the puppy, home, they run into Marcus and Kareem again. The boys scatter when they catch sight of Ms. Tyler. Ms. Tyler is a grumpy old woman who lives in the neighborhood and views the Dwyer-Saunders household with dislike and suspicion. The girls speak politely to Ms. Tyler, inviting her over to try some of Bo and Lola’s baked treats, but Ms. Tyler responds as grumpily as ever.
Back at the house, Sunday and Lil meet Bo and Lee outside, and they try to figure out what to do with Barkerson. As they are talking, three girls their age—Reese, Lita, and Maya—walk up to them. Reese wants to know who Bo is and makes mean comments about the family before stalking off with her posse. The girls tell Bo that Reese has been picking on them since their family arrived in the neighborhood.
Mama Hope catches the girls with Barkerson and declares that he needs to be returned to the shelter. She urges the girls to get ready for their summer session at the community pool. Contrary to her sisters’ excitement, Bo is filled with dread. The other girls are advanced swimmers, but she is just a beginner.
Chapters 11-16 Analysis
Bo and Lola are now firmly established in the Dwyer-Saunders household, and while this continues to be a source of tension in some ways for Bo, the story points to another important, future event. Bill and Lola’s quick courthouse wedding, with no ceremony or celebration, is a disappointment to their daughters. The girls think they ought to have a bigger celebration and present the idea of a block party to the adults. While the adults are apprehensive, the idea continues to simmer, and the girls feel unwilling to abandon it even when they learn of the family’s financial troubles. Over the course of the book, the block party will take on greater significance than just a wedding celebration.
As Bo settles into the brownstone, her experiences and interactions shed more light on her character. Bo is still wary around her new sisters, hesitating to say things bluntly to them, while simultaneously feeling good when they express joy at her presence in the family. Despite her difficulties in adjusting to a larger family, Bo still wants to be accepted and is enjoying the camaraderie she feels with the other girls. Some of Bo’s lingering wariness stems from her worry that something might go wrong, ruminating on the accident which resulted in Bill using a wheelchair. This anticipation of disaster, combined with how Bo’s father is never mentioned, suggests that Bo has dealt with some hurt in the past, resulting in her difficulty with opening up in new relationships. Thus, while the initial chapters paint a picture of Bo as someone responsible and careful, they also explore why she is that way and how these traits both support and impede her Personal Growth and Finding One’s Voice.
As Bo discovers new things about herself, she simultaneously navigates The Dynamics of Blended Family and Sisterhood. Rhuday-Perkovich depicts both the joy and challenges of integrating into a larger family for Bo, demonstrating the nuanced and occasionally contradictory emotions it invokes. Bo misses spending time alone with Lola but is also having fun with her new sisters and enjoys being included by them. One positive outcome for Bo is that she is learning to let go of Lola as her only source of emotional support while learning that she can lean on other people. Still, Bo is tentative around her sisters, unsure of whether she can express her opinions on things bluntly. She hesitates to point out that organization and planning are not her sisters’ forte when they first think of the block party. However, the other girls’ responses show Bo that they are willing to celebrate their differences. Not only do they appreciate each other’s strengths, but also acknowledge and accept the things that they cannot do well. This helps Bo feel more confident about how she fits into a new family.
Bo’s experiences as part of a blended family also intersect with her personal growth. Bo is not someone who enjoys change or trying new things. However, she is constantly pushed towards new experiences, especially via freeschooling. Bo reflects on how she did not expect freeschooling to be so much work, and she dreads some of the things it entails, like swimming lessons. These experiences show Bo that a lack of imposed structure does not equal a lack of discipline. Bo is pushed out of her comfort zone of having a concrete plan to depend on and dictate her learning. Bo’s experiences suggest that even individual personal growth happens in the context of relationships with others, especially those whose strengths and proclivities differ. Another piece of Bo’s personal growth is learning to balance her personal wants with the needs of the larger group. The Paris and Lagos trip that she was looking forward to is postponed because of the family’s tight financial situation. Bo is disappointed but also understands these are the demands of being part of a large family. There is also an upside: There are more people to comfort and support her in tough times, and her sisters manage to cheer her up and help her move past her disappointment. Bo thus learns some valuable lessons not just about school, but also life in general, and these are facilitated by her new family setup.
Bo also gets to know other members of her new neighborhood in these chapters, further developing the theme of The Role of Community in Fostering Belonging and Support. She meets Amy Johnson, the little girl on the sidewalk, and Marcus and Kareem, a couple of neighborhood boys with whom the girls playfully banter. Both Amy and the boys turn out to be positive relationships that the girls foster within their neighborhood community, especially later on in the book. However, Bo also meets Ms. Tyler, a grumpy elderly woman who views the Dwyer-Saunders family with suspicion, and Reese, Lita, and Maya, the neighborhood bullies. These interactions indicate that, while the family is tight-knit within, they are still not completely understood or accepted by the rest of their neighborhood. The neighborhood is an important part of the family’s life, but all is not smooth sailing yet. The friction that exists within Bo’s new neighborhood suggests that supportive communities must be deliberately and carefully built by their members, a task that Bo and her family will undertake as the novel goes on.
