Echo

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Part 3, Chapters 11-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 11 Summary

Ivy attends her first orchestra meeting, where some students snicker at her presence. When she plays “Johnny Comes Marching Home” on her harmonica at Mr. Daniels’ request, she channels her heartache, and the students clap. Mr. Daniels tells her that she has “promise” (469). Susan tells her friend that she thought she was aware of the two schools, and Ivy tells her she has never been segregated before.

Part 3, Chapter 12 Summary

On Christmas Eve, the Lopez family receives letters from Fernando. In Ivy’s letter, he encloses a penny “for a concert” (477). She writes him back to tell him about the annexed school, but she does not tell him about her suspicions regarding the Yamamotos. She hopes to get inside the house to check it out for herself.

Part 3, Chapter 13 Summary

Ivy tells her mother she would like to plant flowers in front of the Yamamoto’s house. The two enter the house and go through pictures of the Yamamoto girls playing the flute, Kenneth playing the violin, and more. At the back of the closet, she notices a small, secret door. She does not tell her mother about it. Mr. Ward is looking at them from his car when they exit.

Part 3, Chapter 14 Summary

Ivy wishes to go back to the Yamamotos’ house and says she will plant a vegetable garden to welcome Kenneth when he comes to inspect the property. She suggests she could also sell vegetables and buy war stamps with the profits. While planting, Ivy sees a boy on a bicycle and wonders who he is.

Part 3, Chapter 15 Summary

Ivy explains her war garden to Susan. Ivy plays “Auld Lang Syne” on her harmonica, and Susan explains that the song is a way to remember old friends positively. Ivy wonders if Mr. Ward remembers the Yamamotos with any fondness.

Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary

The flowerbeds and vegetable gardens that Ivy has planted have been torn up and trampled. Ivy reacts in anger: “What is wrong with people? And why doesn’t anyone stop them?” (501)

Part 3, Chapters 11-16 Analysis

These chapters trace an upswing in Ivy’s courage and confidence, bolstered by both her new orchestra instructor, Mr. Daniels, as well as a letter from Fernando. As her faith in her gift is renewed, she feels she has made the right choice in staying in Orange County with her family. She plays to comfort herself as she reads her brother’s letter, and as she plants a war garden, thinking of the family who should be occupying the house.

However, Ivy’s attempts to do right by the Yamamotos are motivated by conflicting impulses. On the one hand, she feels their shame and ostracism acutely, and wishes she could know the flute-playing girls who are in a camp. On the other hand, the Wards’ belief that the family may be spies has gotten into her mind, especially because her own fate is so bound up with theirs. If they are spies, her family will surely never receive a deed to the farm. Rather than disclosing this worry to her parents, she endeavors to figure it out on her own.

Her worry is compounded when she finds a secret door. Torn between her desire to help her own family and her desire to do what is “patriotic,” she keeps quiet, hoping for an opportunity to figure out the matter herself, rather than informing any adults.