68 pages • 2 hours read
John David AndersonPosted
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 19-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Response”
Eric contemplates a way to put Wolf’s bully in his place. By Monday, he still doesn’t have a solution and feels no better about what happened. He follows a wave of students to Wolf’s locker—now painted bright blue and covered with sticky notes that overlap “like links of chain-mail armor” (339). Every note is a compliment or kind word about Wolf, and as Eric watches, more and more students add their notes. Eric adds a note with Wolf’s own aphorism about words being ghosts that he wrote in English class. From behind, he hears the bullies who defaced Wolf’s locker snickering. Eric goes to the principal’s office to report them, but Bench is already there because he did the deed himself.
That night, Eric goes to Wolf’s house. Without its models, his room looks hollowed out, as if “part of Wolf had been carved out of him and scattered all over the backyard” (343). The locker incident is the last in a long line of offenses from his bullies, and Wolf plans to go to a new school so he can get away from them and start over.
The next day, Eric, Deedee, and Rose accompany Wolf to clean out his locker. All the sticky notes are still up, and the sheer amount amazes Wolf. His locker contains only a few things, one of which is a note folded into the shape of a fish. Rose found it on her locker the day she ran the Gauntlet; it’s from Bench, telling her to “Keep your head up. Keep your eyes forward. And don’t let go” (351). Deedee tells Wolf he doesn’t have to go, and while Wolf agrees that he doesn’t have to, he leaves the school anyway.
Chapter 20 Summary: “The Invitation”
Following Wolf’s incident, cell phones are reinstated at BMS, but students have to keep them in their lockers. Sticky notes remain banned, and the principal announces a new initiative to combat bullying. At lunch, Eric, Deedee, and Rose sit together, and Bench sits with his teammates. Though the group is now different, Eric doesn’t feel like something’s missing. Eric, Deedee, Rose, and Wolf still get together to play D&D on Saturdays, and Wolf seems happier since transferring schools.
One Saturday, when they’re playing at Eric’s house, Bench shows up. He invites the group to his upcoming football game and asks Wolf how his new school is, looking relieved when Wolf says he enjoys it. Rose invites Bench to stay, but he turns her down with a “maybe next time” (363). With those words, Eric realizes Bench will be a “maybe” in their group from now on. The group heads back inside to hang out, secure in their friendship.
Chapters 19-20 Analysis
Chapter 19 brings the book full circle to the Prologue, and for the first time since they were implemented by the group, the sticky notes are put to good use: to support a classmate. This underlines the theme of Anonymity Gives People Power; while many people use anonymity to hurt others, it also gives people the chance to express kindness toward strangers. Eric describes the overlapping notes as similar to armor, a subtle allusion to D&D; they cover the message left on Wolf’s locker, protecting him from seeing it. This image emphasizes how Words Can’t Be Taken Back as the message remains on the locker underneath the notes, but it shows how healing can trump the meaning of those words. The notes also act as a form of solidarity, the students and staff of BMS banding together to show Wolf how much they care about him. While most of the posters barely know Wolf, this act speaks to human compassion. Only one person left a nasty message on Wolf’s locker—many, many more chose to combat the bullying.
Wolf’s acknowledgment that he doesn’t have to leave BMS despite ultimately opting for a fresh start completes his character arc. Throughout the book, Wolf and Rose are foils for each other with Rose not caring what anyone says and Wolf taking hurtful words to heart (even ones that aren’t aimed at him). By acknowledging that he doesn’t have to leave, Wolf shows that he understands leaving is a choice. If he chose to return to BMS, life post-locker incident would probably be tolerable, but by choosing a new school, he has the chance to move on more completely from what the bullies did. He isn’t leaving because they chased him off, which is the best mindset he can have. Though the bullies never find out why Wolf leaves, he himself knows the truth, which is what matters most.
By the end of the book, Bench is fully detached from the group, but his visit to Eric’s house shows he still cares about his former friends, if not in the same way. Rose taking Bench’s place is an example of how friendships evolve. Both Rose and Bench needed to enact and experience change so that they could grow. As a result, Eric, Deedee, and Wolf also grow, avoiding stagnation. Eric notes that the group doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything, which brings his character arc full circle. He accepts Rose as a girl and as a member of the group, and he knows Bench will find happiness with his new friends.
Related Titles
By John David Anderson
