60 pages • 2 hours read
David LubarA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
On Friday, Scott shares his list of Tom Swifties with Kelly in English class, hoping she will pass it on to Julia. However, he loses track of the list and has lost it by the end of class. After school, he joins Kyle and Patrick at the movies, but Mitch does not show up.
Later that night, Scott wakes up when Bobby phones the house after being arrested for unpaid parking tickets. Mom and Dad return with Bobby and his possessions; he will be staying with the family until he gets back on his feet. Bobby, who wrecked his car months ago, lost his job because he had to walk to work and was often late. Scott asks his brother how to be noticed by girls, but the only advice Bobby has is that as a Hudson, Scott should have no problems. Bobby also warns Scott that everything at home is about to change with the birth of the new baby.
Mr. Franka, having read the Tom Swifties that were passed around the class on Friday, asks Scott if he would like to write book reviews for the school newspaper. Scott is tempted but refuses due to the amount of schoolwork he is assigned. At home, Mom reassures him that although nobody in the Hudson family has ever gone to college, there is a first time for everything.
Meanwhile, seniors continue to bully Mouth, and Mitch now eats lunch with his girlfriend daily. Kyle believes that the girl will dump Mitch within a week. Scott, who believes that Julia only gets more beautiful every day, asks Dad how he got Mom to notice him. Dad tells him that he just showed up wherever Mom might be.
After Scott finishes To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, he tries to interest Bobby in reading it, but Bobby would rather take Scott to play slot cars than read. Mom also declines to read it but invites Scott to read the book to her as she makes applesauce. In his journal, Scott writes to the newly nicknamed “Smelly” that Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is like their father because Dad is also quiet but not a “wimp” (61).
In English class, Scott learns that Julia is writing an article for the school newspaper, prompting Scott to join the newspaper staff. The editor, Mandy, assigns him to cover the football games because Scott is wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey that day. After taking the assignment, Scott learns that Julia’s article was for the guest column; she is not actually on the newspaper staff. Mouth, however, is. Later that night, he tells Smelly that he will never again try to get Julia to notice him.
Scott tells Patrick and Kyle that he is covering the football game the next night for the paper, which prompts Kyle to throw a football at Scott’s head. At home, Bobby reacts by telling Scott that he once dated Mandy. Dad trades in his Taurus to buy a used Corvette that needs work. Rather than help Bobby and Dad with the engine, Scott asks Mom if he is adopted since he has no interest in cars or tools. She reassures him that he has the same good heart as Bobby and Dad.
At the football game, both Patrick and Kyle leave at half-time because the team is losing badly. Scott struggles with writing his article because the team is so bad and decides to write it in the form of Tom Swifties.
The next morning, Scott wakes up when Mom and Dad clear out the spare room, including his bookcase. After doing homework for hours, Scott walks to the elementary school playground to meet up with Patrick and Kyle. Kyle remarks that Mitch is “gone for good” (78), and Patrick replies that it’s wrong for friends to abandon each other. While Kyle and Patrick play basketball, Scott reads his novel for English class on the side of the court until Kyle throws the ball and knocks Scott’s book out of his hands.
Returning home, he discovers Mom has baked a cake in honor of Bobby getting a new job at a diner. Scott offers to let his mother read the article on the football game, but when she declines, he has second thoughts about using Tom Swifties to describe the game. He finally decides to leave it alone. On Monday, after turning in his article, Scott discovers his Spanish teacher is French, which explains why nobody understands her. This disclosure leads him to write a Field Guide to Teachers in his journal, explaining to Smelly how to tell the difference between good and bad teachers.
Mr. Franka hands out the school newspaper on Tuesday morning, congratulating Scott on his article. At lunch, however, the team quarterback, Vernon Dross, is furious that the article doesn’t mention his name. When he and Dad pick up tacos that night to satisfy his mom’s craving, they reassure each other that they are doing fine.
The next Friday, the football team loses again, and Patrick and Kyle leave before half-time. Scott writes his football article in the form of a diary entry and is conscientious about mentioning Vernon by name.
On Sunday morning, Mom falls. While his parents rush to the hospital, Scott awakens Bobby to tell him of the accident. Bobby reacts by leaving, telling Scott that he can’t handle the stress in the house. Mom is fine but is upset to learn that Bobby has left home again. In his journal, Scott reveals his fear for his mom’s health and tells Smelly to stop causing trouble.
In these chapters, Lubar advances the themes of relationships, identity, and deception as Scott navigates the changes at home and school. The tone remains humorous, but the mood becomes uneasy as Scott’s friendships begin to fragment and Mom’s health suffers due to her pregnancy. Lubar highlights Scott’s fondness for literature in this section; Scott is constantly reading for homework but also for pleasure, which emphasizes the difference between him and his friends and family. Scott alludes to the books and short stories he’s reading, but nobody he talks to shares his interest. This disparity underscores his feelings of isolation even when he is with friends and family. For example, Kyle is angry whenever Scott indulges his love for reading or writing, throwing a football at Scott’s head when Scott announces that he is writing for the newspaper and throwing a basketball at him when he tries to read while they are playing basketball. Kyle’s excuse for the bullying behavior is that he is “trying to save your [Scott’s] eyesight. You’re going to get all squinty if you keep on reading” (78). Patrick, on the other hand, tells Scott that writing for the newspaper is “pretty cool” (70) and that Scott’s English book doesn’t look bad, even though he admits that he’d rather “waste my time on movies and video games” (79) when Scott offers to let him read it. Kyle’s reactions to Scott’s bookish tendencies foreshadow the upcoming conflict between the two boys, while Patrick’s support signifies that he, of all the group, will be the only friend that Scott can rely upon. The basketball scene also has symbolic value, as Scott is also moving away metaphorically from his friends; his advanced classes and the accompanying homework distances him from his friends, a fact highlighted when Patrick calls him the “lost boy” (77) as he joins them on the basketball court. On the heels of Mitch abandoning their group for his new girlfriend, Kyle sees Scott’s act of moving away from the game to sit reading on the sidelines as a similar abandonment, precipitating his aggressive reaction.
Scott’s family also does not share his passion for reading. When Scott tries to get Bobby to read To Kill a Mockingbird, Bobby looks “as if I’d offered him a slab of month-old uncooked pork” (59). Mom also declines to read the book, although she does invite him to read it to her as she cooks. This role reversal—the son reading to his mother—mirrors other reversals occurring around Mom. Normally the person who feeds the family, Mom’s cravings have resulted in Scott and Dad heading out for wings, shrimp, and tacos to satisfy her needs. Scott’s relationship with his mother begins to change, as he gradually sees her as a person to take care of rather than the person who takes care of everyone else. He becomes protective of her, writing to Smelly, “You have no idea what you’re doing to Mom” and to “stop causing trouble” (58, 92). The changing family dynamic creates internal conflict for Scott, who writes in his journal that “right now, everything is in flux. You know what? Flux sux” (92).
Scott’s relationship with his brother also changes when Bobby moves back into the house. Bobby takes Scott to play slot cars and gives him advice about girls, which is in line with Scott’s continuing hero worship of his older brother. Their growing closeness stalls, however, when Bobby is unable to deal with the stress of Mom’s fall and leaves, borrowing money from Scott to do so. Bobby’s refusal to confront his feelings about his mother’s vulnerability characterizes him as someone who runs from his problems rather than deal with them, further supported when he loses his job or is arrested for not paying his parking tickets. However, his departure affects Scott as well, pulling a source of support away just as everything in his life is changing.
In this section, Lubar returns to the theme of deception to others and oneself. Scott repeatedly tells himself and others that he is fine. He pretends to believe that he will be able to keep up with his classes and still maintain the same relationship with his friends as before when he tells himself, “This will work [...]. I could get my homework done and still have a normal social life” (47). Bobby tells Scott that he is lying to himself when he says that after the baby is born, nothing will change, but Scott replies, “I’m not lying to myself,” even as he recognizes that the lies he’s telling himself are lies that he wants to believe (51). Scott’s pattern of lying to himself is a way of denying his world is changing, but he also lies to protect himself against hurt. He tells Kyle and Patrick that he doesn’t mind if they leave the football game, even though he knows he would never do that to them. He tells his parents he is fine even when the bullying and homework at school are crushing him. He even lies about liking the nursery wallpaper. Scott tells trivial lies to preserve other people’s feelings, but he also uses small deceptions to cover up his feelings about losing his place in the family. While he worries about hurting his family’s or friends’ feelings, he also refuses to acknowledge his own. The only person Scott is completely honest with is his unborn sibling when he writes in his journal.
Lubar continues to use the motif of bullying to build external conflict. Mouth is bullied every day, and although Scott devises methods to escape the bus bullying, such as sitting behind Sheldon Murmbower to avoid being hit, he still is forced to give up his change in the school hallways to a Wesley Cobble. Scott also hides from Vernon Dross, fearing the quarterback will beat him up. Lubar alludes to Vernon’s character in his last name: The definition of “dross” is something that is worthless or rubbish. This creates irony because Vernon wants badly to have his “worthless” name publicized. Scott’s avoidance of Vernon mirrors Bobby’s flight, but unlike Bobby, Scott is also perseverant. Dad’s advice to show up everywhere the girl is drives Scott’s motivation for joining the newspaper, but even when he learns that Julia won’t be on the staff, Scott continues to write for the paper despite the limits it puts on his social life. Like his father, who would rather work on muscle cars than manage the people who work on luxury cars, Scott honors his obligations. Though he seems more street-smart and tough, Bobby doesn’t have the same stoic resilience that Scott and Dad possess.
Lubar creates a learning environment for his readers by demonstrating literary concepts from English class throughout the novel. When the class learns about metaphors and similes, Scott compares Julia’s hair to kids dancing in a mosh pit and employs an extended metaphor when comparing a bus ride to an Olympic event. He also inserts a stream-of-consciousness paragraph in his journal after Mr. Franka introduces the concept in class. In his journal, Scott builds on his writing skills by employing literary devices, signifying that writing will be an important facet of his character.