69 pages • 2 hours read
Gordon KormanThe Juvie Three
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008A 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 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Healy and the boys arrive at Alma K. Walker High School. The school principal, Dr. Cavendish, has called a meeting before classes start, where he berates the boys for their imaginary future crimes. Healy speaks up in their defense and tells Dr. Cavendish that he’s being unfair.
Once outside the office, the group meets Ms. Vaughn, the social worker in charge of the boys’ case. Healy is visibly frightened of her and tells them that she has the power to send the boys back where they came from at a moment’s notice. Ms. Vaughn, Healy, and the boys head down the halls and deposit Gecko in a classroom for freshman chemistry.
Gecko is at a table with a boy named Diego, who is terrified of Gecko. Gecko begins his assignment and accidentally knocks over a glass beaker, which shatters. The contents of the beaker spill onto a nearby student’s shoes. The student gears up for a fight until he sees who’s responsible, and then he retreats in fear. Diego is also afraid, and Gecko reflects that this new environment is just as hurtful as the one he left behind.
Terence is roaming the hallways. He meets a student named DeAndre, who is trying to fence stolen cellphones. Terence shows interest in the boy’s merchandise, but the boy pulls a knife on him and tells him to leave it alone. Terence reflects that he’s finally home.
Chapter 6 Summary
Gecko, Arjay, and Terence are in the office of the Upper Second Avenue Business Improvement District, where they’re fulfilling their required community service as cleaners. While changing into their uniforms, Terence steals another cleaner’s wallet. Arjay catches him and forces him to give it back, saying that he won’t let Terence ruin the program and get them sent back.
Outside, the crew members are sweeping up trash along the street. Terence takes frequent bathroom breaks at Starbucks, and Gecko catches sight of two cars drag racing down the avenue. Gecko is “almost overcome by the feeling of pure longing” (38), reflecting that it will be a long time before he has a chance to drive a car again. Coming out of Starbucks, Terence sees DeAndre across the street.
Healy picks up the boys from community service after picking up food for dinner. As they arrive at the apartment, Gecko notices that every doorbell has a name beside it except for theirs.
Inside, their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Liebowitz, is struggling with her groceries. Arjay tries to help but is sharply rebuffed. Mrs. Liebowitz isn’t happy that the program has moved into her building, and she ignores Healy’s attempts at peacemaking.
Chapter 7 Summary
The boys are in an office on Park Avenue participating in their mandatory group counseling, along with other teenagers including Casey Wagner, Drew Roddenbury, and Victoria Ko. The counseling is run by Dr. Kathryn Avery, a strikingly beautiful psychotherapist. Terence amuses the others by expressing his interest in Dr. Avery and asking if she has a boyfriend.
Tension rises between Terence and Casey, who calls him a “gangbanger” (45). Drew reveals that he’s in counseling because he got caught illegally downloading music for his brother; Gecko reflects that he can relate to getting in trouble because of what a brother made him do.
Chapter 8 Summary
Alone in the band room, Arjay plays “Stairway to Heaven” on his guitar. He reflects that the song was his lifeline during his 14 months in prison. Arjay explores his memory of the incident that led him there: a run-in with a school football team who attacked him while he was walking home. Arjay hit one of his attackers, and the boy went down, knocking his head on a statue on the way. Arjay went on trial where the other boys on the football team related how Arjay had murdered the boy in cold blood.
While he is playing, a second guitar joins in, and Arjay sees that a teacher has joined him in the room. The two of them play their own harmonious version of the song together, and Arjay realizes that he’s having fun for the first time in a very long time.
The teacher introduces himself as Mr. Cantor, the music teacher. He invites Arjay to join his school stage band, but Arjay can’t commit the after-school time. He’s forced to decline the offer.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
In these chapters, the boys begin interacting with other characters who will shape their journey to come, including the antagonists Ms. Vaughn and Mrs. Liebowitz as well as Diego, DeAndre, and Casey, who all become a part of one of the boys’ stories. In the case of Diego and DeAndre, Korman sets up a very distinctive relationship right from the beginning. Diego is afraid of Gecko and treats him like a thug, while DeAndre quickly comes to represent an ideal for Terence to aspire to. By the end of the novel, these relationships will have become completely inverted.
This section also introduces some of our primary settings: the B.I.D. where the boys go for their community service, and their group counseling session with Dr. Avery and the other troubled teens. Despite the cynicism of the boys, the group counseling sessions play a part in their growth as they listen and compare themselves with the other kids. It helps them see a world wider and more complex than just the three of them.
Finally, we get to see Arjay’s relationship with music and the power it has to heal him. Up until this point, Arjay had been somewhat less developed than the other two boys, which may have been an intentional choice—his simple openness made him something of a blank slate on which to show this powerful connection with his music. It’s this relationship with music that goes on to inform many of his choices throughout the novel and to give him hope that there may be a better life waiting for him.
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