46 pages • 1 hour read
Phil BildnerA High Five for Glenn Burke
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A 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 11-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Story of Lamont Sleets”
In their ELA class, Silas and Zoey’s teacher, Ms. Washington, tells the students how proud she is of all their presentations on famous inventors. Then she brings up Glenn Burke and asks the class why they think he did not get credit in his lifetime for inventing the high five. Silas panics as he realizes that Ms. Washington must know that Burke was gay. He worries that she will share this with the class, making them suspicious of him.
Instead, Ms. Washington tells the story of Lamont Sleets, who is often credited with inventing the high five in the 60s, almost a decade before Burke. Silas protests that the story is not true. Ms. Washington agrees, explaining to the class that the story about Sleets was a hoax. A girl in the class asks why someone would make up a story like that. Ms. Washington looks at Silas like she is expecting him to explain why, but Silas does not want the class to find out that Burke was gay. Rather than answer outright, Ms. Washington invites the class to think about how, too often, lies drown out the truth.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Waiting for Grace”
While Silas and Zoey wait for Grace to pick them up after school, Silas tells Zoey how nervous he was that Ms. Washington was going to reveal the truth about Glenn Burke. He is scared that someone is going to look up Glenn Burke and find out that he was gay. Zoey gets frustrated with Silas because she does not think his worries are justified. She encourages Silas to tell Grace that he is gay, because “she’d be cool” (74). She speculates that Grace probably already knows, because she asked Zoey about Silas’s orientation a year ago. Silas panics, but Zoey tells him he is overreacting.
Silas’s dad drives into the parking lot; he has gotten his schedule wrong because he is so busy and frazzled. He leaves, and Grace arrives. She has a surprise for Silas.
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Sandlot Fashion Show”
Grace’s surprise is a suitcase full of costumes that “the kids wore in The Sandlot” (79). She got the costumes because of her job working at the theater. Grace tells Silas he can borrow the costumes, but he has to take very good care of them.
The next day, when Silas gets to baseball practice, Coach Webb lets him surprise the rest of the team with a Sandlot fashion show. He walks out onto the pitch dressed as one of the characters from the movie and gets his teammates to guess who he is. The boys all have fun; many of them also love The Sandlot. One boy, Theo, calls out, “this is so gay” (82), and another, Kareem, echoes him.
Silas flinches but keeps smiling, desperate to not let anyone notice his fear. He runs to go get changed into the next costume, but he feels scared. He continues the show, but he cannot shake his feeling of deep unease.
Chapter 14 Summary: “So Gay”
A few months after Glenn Burke invented the high five while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team’s manager, Tommy Lasorda, and the vice president, Al Campanis, traded him to the Oakland Athletics, “the worst team in baseball” (84). Despite Burke’s talent, neither Lasorda nor Campanis wanted Burke on their team because they were aware of his sexuality.
Theo and Kareem’s taunts ring in Silas’s ears, and he thinks about the poor treatment Burke received after he was traded. Silas feels like he must always keep track of how people look at him and what they might be thinking of him. The stress of coming out is getting to him.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Destiny’s Child”
Silas arrives at Zoey’s house on Wednesday. He reluctantly tells her that the fashion show did not go well, but he does not go into detail. Zoey shows Silas Grace’s room, which has been turned into a work room for Zoey’s robotics project. Grace is sleeping on the couch so that Zoey has space to work on the project at home. Zoey shows Silas the robot she is working on and tells him that her team let her name it “Destiny’s Child.” Silas tells her that it is amazing and that her team is sure to win their tournament. Once again, Zoey encourages Silas to tell Grace that he is gay. Silas is upset that Zoey will not drop the subject. She tells him that it is hard for her to be the only one who knows. Silas protests that “this isn’t about [her]” (92).
Chapter 16 Summary: “Teamwork”
The Renegades have fly ball practice. Silas does an amazing job and impresses both his teammates and his coaches. After practice, Silas waits for his dad to pick him up, but Gil is late. Coach Webb offers to give him a ride home. As they walk to Webb’s car, Silas asks him if he knows who Glenn Burke was. Silas tells him that he did a presentation on Burke at school. He also tells Webb about the anachronistic high five in The Sandlot. Finally, Silas asks Webb if he knew that Burke was gay. Webb says that he did know this, and that “unfortunately, baseball wasn’t ready for a gay ballplayer back then” (98). Silas tells Webb that he is gay, but he immediately wishes that he could take back his words.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Out in the Field”
Content Warning: The book uses an anti-gay slur, which this guide obscures.
Webb acknowledges that it must have been difficult for Silas to tell him that he is gay. He gives Silas a hug and tells him that it is okay. Silas cries and begs Webb not to tell anyone, not even his parents; Webb assures him that he would never do that. He also tells Silas that he should not “underestimate [his] parents” (101), because he can tell they are good people. He gets a glove and ball and he and Silas go back to the pitch to play catch for a bit. As they throw the ball back and forth, Webb tells Silas that he thinks he is very brave and promises that what he told him will not change anything for him. They talk a bit about their team before Silas asks Webb if he thinks that baseball is ready for a player like Burke now. Webb says that he hopes so.
Silas brings up what happened to Burke when he was introduced to the Oakland A’s team. The manager, Billy Martin, introduced him to his new team by saying, “This is Glenn Burke […] and he’s a f*****” (104). Webb asks Silas if he knows what that word means, and Silas replies that it is a slur. Webb tells him that the word developed as a slur because it also refers to a bundle of sticks used to burn heretics to death for going against the establishment. Webb tells Silas to always be authentic and promises that the Renegades will always be a community for him.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Telling”
Silas calls Zoey and tells her that he told Webb that he is gay. Zoey is happy for him and relieved to no longer be the only person who knows. She seems distracted and has to hang up after a moment, as she is still at her robotics club.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Bedtime Story”
Silas and Haley are helping put Semaj to bed. Semaj insists on hearing a bedtime story, so Silas reenacts his ELA presentation about Glenn Burke, making it sillier to appeal to his younger sister. He high fives Semaj and Haley, but he still leaves out the part about Burke being gay. He is not ready to tell his sisters yet.
Chapters 11-19 Analysis
Content Warning: The book uses an anti-gay slur, which this guide obscures.
The events of these chapters show Silas that coming out is not always a straightforward process. Zoey is the only person he can talk to about his experiences. His teammates do not know about him, and even if they did, he realizes that they might not all be accepting after the incident at the fashion show.
Zoey and Silas are both flawed. They behave imperfectly due to their own limitations, inexperience, and external stressors. Zoey is the only one who knows Silas’s secret, and there is a lot of pressure on her to support him in the way he needs. Zoey is very young and unsure of how to talk about being gay with Silas. She is also very busy with her robotics club. Silas expects a lot from Zoey, but he is also imperfect and not especially prepared to reciprocate that support: He knows relatively little about robotics and is not planning to come to her competition because he is busy with baseball.
Zoey is overwhelmed by keeping Silas’s secret. She wants Silas to tell Grace that he is gay so that she does not have to keep the secret all by herself, and so that she can ask questions about how best to respond. She is relieved when Silas discloses his sexuality to Webb, but she still has nobody to talk to herself.
The novel shows that she is a loyal friend. Despite her difficulties, she keeps her word and does not tell anyone about Silas. For Silas, Webb is a coach, but he also acts as a friend and mentor when Silas comes out to him. As a thoughtful adult, Webb is better equipped to provide the kind of encouragement and support that Silas needs at this juncture.
The book focuses heavily on learning the truth about history, like giving Glenn Burke credit for the high five. However, Webb tells Silas an incorrect etymology for the anti-gay slur that they discuss. The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that “the explanation that male homosexuals were called f****** because they were burned at the stake as punishment is an etymological urban legend” (“F***** (n.2).” etymonline.com). It is true that the word originally referred to a bundle of sticks, and it is also true that some heretics were burned at the stake, but these facts are not connected to the word’s use as an anti-gay slur. It is likely that the term actually has roots in ageism and misogyny, becoming an anti-gay term in the early 20th century.
When Silas comes out to Webb, he is once again Connecting to a Sports Legacy. He brings up Burke before telling Webb that he is gay, linking his own experiences to Burke’s and giving himself a place within the baseball world. Webb is hesitant to tell Silas that baseball has become less anti-gay since Burke’s day. There are no contemporary gay MLB role models that Silas can turn to, as no current players are out. There are a few Minor League players who have come out, however, potentially indicating that the culture surrounding the sport is starting to change.
Silas’s journey toward self-acceptance is not always an easy process. These chapters include Silas’s first personal brush with anti-gay bias when his teammates tell him that his fashion show is gay and mean gay as an insult. Silas starts to feel increasingly paranoid, constantly wondering about whether anyone knows his secret and what they are thinking about him. He does not feel as though anyone really understands him, with the possible exception of Webb. Before he comes out, Silas only thinks about the encouraging videos he has seen on YouTube, rather than people he knows personally who have come out. He lacks role models in his own life, adding to his challenges. The upheaval he is facing is not what he expected, and it makes him uncomfortable. As Silas notes several times, once he comes out, he cannot take it back.
