51 pages • 1 hour read
Rob BuyeaMr. Terupt Falls Again
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “January”
Lexie’s mom works at a restaurant called the Pines, and Lexie starts to work with her there washing dishes after school. She thinks of Anna as her guardian angel for helping Mr. Terupt find her. Mr. Terupt, Ms. Newberry, Lexie, and her mom all have dinner, and the next day, Lexie’s mom picks her up from school. Her mom takes the day off of work and spends it with Lexie. They drive to the abandoned house, and her mom tells her that she is not allowed to go there anymore. Lexie is glad to hear this because she wants her mom in her life. Lexie’s mom explains to her that she works so much because she does not receive any child support from Lexie’s father. Lexie is relieved because she thought her mom worked so much because she did not like being around her. Lexie offers to work with her mom to help with money, so they can be together.
Mr. Terupt is the school’s wrestling coach. He calls Jeffrey’s parents and suggests that he start wrestling because he thinks Jeffrey will be good at it. Jeffrey is excited about the idea.
Mr. Terupt assigns the class the project of planning his and Ms. Newberry’s wedding. They name Luke the wedding manager. Luke notices Mr. Terupt wobble a bit and worries about his health.
Danielle is in a bathroom stall crying, and Lexie comes in the stall and sees blood on Danielle’s underwear. Lexie is excited because this means that Danielle is a woman, but Danielle is confused. Lexie takes Danielle to the nurse who gets her everything she needs. The nurse tells Danielle that this will happen every month, and the nurse says she will call Danielle’s mother to tell her. This all makes Danielle feel better. In her prayer, Danielle asks God, if she is grown up enough to get her period, whether she is grown up enough to learn about why the Moonsuc man was in her family’s fields.
Lexie is jealous that Danielle gets her period before her, and she attributes it to Danielle being heavier than she is. She says that Danielle thought something was wrong with her because she did not know what a period was.
Jessica prepares to write the wedding announcement and wedding invitation. She asks Mr. Terupt what his parents’ names are, and when he uses the word “was,” she knows they are dead.
Anna researches ideas for centerpieces. Jeffrey’s mom has purchased a video recorder to tape Asher, and Jessica says they should make a movie of the wedding. Jessica is the director, so she asks Anna to write the invitations and announcement.
Peter is frustrated because he knows he has to help with the wedding. He wants to be the DJ, and this will cause problems with his plan to fail. At his interview with Riverway, he tells the woman that he does not want to go to Riverway because there is someone who needs him. The lady tells him that his parents will not be notified of what he has said until admissions decisions are made.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “February”
Mr. Terupt explains to the class that one of the best parts about reading is making connections. This makes reading more enjoyable and helps a person read at a deeper level. The students’ job is to make connections with the books they are reading. Jeffrey notices the lizards are dead, and he blames Peter. Peter confronts Jeffrey about feeling special because Mr. Terupt got him involved in wrestling, and Jeffrey says Peter killed the lizards out of jealousy. The two boys fight, and Jessica says she feels like the girl, Cherry, in The Outsiders because she is caught between two warring people.
Mr. Terupt gives Peter Wringer to read. Peter relates to this book because like Palmer in the novel, Peter cannot talk to his father. Peter acknowledges to himself that Mr. Terupt is not going to fail him. He says that the lizards died because the lamp in their habitat malfunctioned and did not turn off overnight. Mr. Terupt tells Peter that he is going to have him wrestle too. Both boys smile, and Jeffrey apologizes.
Jeffrey considers how his family has changed, as his parents are now happy, and he thinks about how his class has changed because a year ago, Mr. Terupt was in a coma. The class has decided that their wedding gift will be a homemade bookshelf, and Jeffrey and his father build it. Jeffrey’s dad tells him that they want to adopt Asher, and he tells Jeffrey that they only have Asher because of him. They assure Jeffrey that they are not trying to replace either Michael or Jeffrey, and Jeffrey is excited. One of the reasons he likes wrestling is because it gives him more time with his dad. He tells Mr. Terupt about what Peter said, and he suggests they invite all the boys to wrestle so that no one feels left out.
The class has a funeral for the lizards. The students all do research on obituaries so they can each write their own for Lincoln and Jackson. Danielle uses the computer to try to find information on Mr. Terupt’s parents.
Jessica finds a news article that says that Mr. Terupt’s parents died in a car accident after they left one of Mr. Terupt’s wrestling matches. Mr. Terupt sees the research and is not upset. He tells them that after the funeral, he will share with the class both what happened to his parents and what all of the students have taught him.
The class has a funeral, and then Lexie thinks about how she relates to Margaret in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret because both she and Margaret want to grow up. Things went well for Margaret in the book, so that gives Lexie bravery to continue trying to impress the visiting boys.
Mr. Terupt explains that just like the boy in Bridge to Terabithia, he worked hard as a teen, and he wanted his parents to be at his wrestling match. They were concerned because of a winter storm, but he convinced them to come anyway. They watched his meet and saw him win but died in a crash on the way home. He went to college in the fall, and he says wrestling saved his life by giving him something to focus on after his parents died. His students taught him that it was okay to love again, and they did this by being his family when he was in the hospital the year before.
Danielle finds an article that says the Moonsuc nation is suing some landowners because a 1700s treaty gave them the land that is now farmed by families like Danielle’s. She says that she will pray for the Moonsuc people, but she will not give her land back. They should have worked this problem out long ago, and it’s not fair for them to take the land her family worked on for generations.
Lexie, her mother, and Vincent, a cook at the restaurant, will cook for the wedding. Luke thinks of Peter’s and Jeffrey’s fight and how it was better than a “girl war” because they delt with it quickly and are friends again. Luke feels a connection with Stanley Yelnats in Holes because Luke is forced to wrestle just like Stanley is forced to go to camp. Luke does not enjoy wrestling. The other boy’s dads are yelling, but Luke’s is up in the stands reading a book on quantum physics; Luke is happy that he has an intellectual father like Stanley’s.
Part 2, Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Throughout the novel, adults withholding information is shown to have detrimental consequences, highlighting The Importance of Parental Support for Children. This is the case with Lexie and her mother. Lexie knows that her mother works a lot, but as a child, she assumed this was because her mother did not want to be around her. Finally, when they sit down and have a discussion, Lexie learns it is because her mom does not receive child support, so she must work that hard to meet their basic needs. Had Lexie’s mom been more honest with Lexie from the beginning, Lexie may not have sought out validation elsewhere or questioned her mother’s love for her. Once they have an honest conversation, they come up with a solution that works for both of them. This proves in the novel, once again, that communication is important for solving problems.
Another way that the withholding of information is shown to be detrimental is in Danielle’s panic over her period. When she gets her period at school, she had already had it numerous times. None of the adults in her life explained this aspect of puberty to her, so she thought there was something wrong with her. It is not until Lexie finds her and Danielle gets help from the nurse that she understands that having a period is normal. Throughout the rest of the novel, she begins to understand more about her menstrual cycle, and this also helps her understand her moods. Had her mother explained puberty to her before Danielle started to go through it, she might not have been so afraid and ashamed. Danielle’s family does not value open communication and the sharing of difficult or uncomfortable truths, and Danielle is often the one who suffers because of this. This reluctance extends to Danielle’s questions about the man in her family’s fields; they will not tell her about their dispute with the Moonsuc, which adds another layer of ignorance that Danielle must dispel herself.
Children withholding information is shown to be detrimental too. Peter’s conflict intensifies in this chapter as he faces a moral dilemma in that he has to choose between two things that matter to him. On the one hand, he knows he has to help with the wedding plans because Mr. Terupt is so important to him. On the other hand, he knows that helping with the wedding plans will put a dent in his plan to fail the grade. In the end, Peter’s loyalty to Mr. Terupt wins out, and he helps with the wedding planning. He still does not have the courage to directly confront his parents, and he tries other means to get what he wants: He talks to the admissions counselor, and he considers asking Danielle about prayer. The idea of confronting his father does not cross his mind at this point, and this builds suspense around how his issue with attending Riverway will resolve.
Mr. Terupt teaches his students the importance of Self-Discovery Through Literature. With the “making-connections” assignment, the students begin to see their own lives reflected in the novels they are reading. Through providing ample examples of how the students connect with characters in classic YA novels like The Outsiders (1967) by S. E. Hinton and Holes (1998) by Louis Sachar, Buyea shows young readers how to do this in their own lives. It is a metafictional exercise, and by writing about the importance of self-discovery through literature, Buyea teaches his readers the same lessons that Mr. Terupt teaches his students.
While all of the characters face problems in the novel, the novel emphasizes the importance of hope. One of the biggest sources of hope is with Jeffrey and his family. After the family loses Michael, Jeffrey’s parents isolate themselves from one another. Caring for Asher brings joy and unity back into their lives. Asher is a foil for Jeffrey to some degree, as Asher’s family physically abandons him while Jeffrey’s family unintentionally emotionally abandons him. When the two come together, they connect with one another and create a new family.
Life’s Lack of Fairness and the Need to Stand Up to Injustice is a major theme in this section. Even though life isn’t fair, students have a responsibility to act fairly and ethically in their own lives. Several characters experience unfairness: It is not fair that Asher is abandoned, that Michael passed away, or that Mr. Terupt lost his parents in a car crash. It is not fair that the Moonsuc lost their land or that now Danielle’s family might lose their land. Most characters find constructive ways to deal with their situations; Jeffrey’s family remedies their situation and Asher’s by adopting Asher, and Mr. Terupt turns to wrestling to gain a sense of purpose and community. Danielle researches the land dispute to learn more about the situation, but her anger initially makes her unsympathetic to the Moonsuc’s point of view. She refers to them as “Indians” (203) even though she knows the term is disrespectful. Only at the end of the novel does she learn to see the situation from both sides.
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