45 pages • 1 hour read
Betty G. BirneyThe Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1980A 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 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “How It Started”
Content Warning: The section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse and mental illness.
A boy named Eben McAllister lives in Sassafras Springs, Missouri, a little town that is not even featured on the map and that he believes is “invisible.” He sits on the front porch with his father, whom he calls “Pa,” his Aunt Pretty, who has lived with the family since Eben’s mother’s death, and his dog, Sal. Eben is reading a book about the Seven Wonders of the World, and his mind is “a million miles away” (3). His aunt calls on him to “wake up and see the world” (3), but Eben complains there are no “wonderful” things in the town. Eben declares that one day he will travel the world to see the wonders. His aunt reprimands him for wanting to leave his father alone with the farmwork, but Pa says Eben is “free” to determine his life.
Eben’s father asks him if his book explains the meaning of a wonder. Eben reads that a wonder is a “marvel” that provokes “awe,” “admiration,” or “surprise.” His father explains that to appreciate such things, a person must first see the “marvels” of their own surroundings, suggesting a deal. He tells Eben he will buy him a ticket to Colorado to visit his cousin Molly’s family if Eben finds seven wonders in Sassafras Springs within seven days. Eben is hesitant, thinking it a difficult task, but resolves to start searching, dreaming of the Colorado mountains.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Day One: I Go Searching”
The following morning, Eben decides to look for wonders across the town with Sal but doubts that he will find anything “awe-inspiring.” Thinking he needs help in his mission, he goes to Jeb, his best friend, at his family’s farm. Eben finds Jeb watching his younger siblings. He asks Jeb to look for wonders with him, explaining the deal he made with his father. Jeb says there are no wonders in Sassafras Springs but suggests he might accompany him the next day.
Eben looks around for wonders but finds nothing. Then, he thinks that asking people would be useful. Eben passes by the house of Mrs. Pritchard, his Sunday school teacher. He greets her even though she rarely invites people to her house. Eben finds the courage to tell her about his search. Mrs. Pritchard tells him it is a “fool’s errand” to look for wonders in the town and says he should study. Disheartened, Eben leaves, but soon his teacher calls him back, saying she remembered something.
Inside the house, Mrs. Pritchard shows him an applehead doll, which she calls Miss Zeldy. Eben thinks the doll is ugly. Mrs. Pritchard begins the story of her doll: “Miss Zeldy’s Message” (26). She explains that she was often sick as a child. At six, she fell ill with a cough, and her parents thought she would not survive. On Christmas, she woke up and saw the doll on a miniature chair carved by her father. She held the doll all day. The doctor warned her parents that her heart was weak. Mrs. Pritchard was sleeping and felt she was “floating” outside of herself when she heard a voice asking for water and calling her to wake up. She awakened and understood that her doll was calling her because her glass of water had spilled. From that day on, Mrs. Pritchard recovered. She emphasizes to Eben that the doll saved her life and says a “miracle” worked through it.
Eben is excited and writes Mrs. Pritchard’s story in his notebook, thinking that it might take him to Colorado.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Day Two: Jeb Joins In”
Eben helps his father with his work on the farm. When he finishes, he leaves to continue his search along with his dog. Jeb finds him on the road and joins him. Eben tells him the doll story, and Jeb suggests they go to the Saylor home: The Saylors are more affluent than others in town, and Jeb thinks that rich people will have more wonders than the poor. When they reach the house and Eben tells Mrs. Saylor about the wonders, she invites them in. She opens a box and takes out a strand of colored pearls and a brooch. She gives them chocolates, but when her husband returns, he calls them “rascals,” wondering what they want. The boys leave.
Jeb admired the pearls, but Eben thinks they were not wonders. Jeb notes that Cully Pone’s house is the next stop but warns Eben that Cully is “crazy.” Eben thinks Cully is harmless, as his father has told him. The boys find Cully outside his shack. Eben describes him as a tall, thin, and disheveled man. Cully is surprised and happy to see them, saying that “folks don’t stop by” (44).
After Eben explains his mission, Cully declares he has a wonder. The boys hesitate but go inside, where Cully shows him a bookcase that holds up the roof. He has had it since his childhood and calls it a “guaranteed wonder.” Cully starts his story, “The Rainmaker’s Revenge” (48). The bookcase belonged to Henry Upton, a man who moved to Garner County during a drought. Upton spent his time reading without working, and people scorned him. One day, he walked into the town board meeting and said he would bring rain to the county. He asked for $500 if he succeeded. The mayor dismissed him. The next morning, Upton built a brick fireplace on a hill and started a fire. The smoke rose, reaching the skies. After two days, the rain started and all the farmers celebrated. Upton demanded his money from the board, but it refused.
The rain caused a flood, and people asked Upton to stop it. Upton was angry and continued his rainmaking to take revenge. Enraged, people gathered with shovels and warned Upton to leave. They loaded his things, including the bookcase, into a wagon. As Upton was riding away, a bridge collapsed, sending him and his belongings into the river. Upton hung onto the bookcase. Cully found him unconscious on the bank the next morning and saw the bookcase floating nearby. When Upton awakened, he told Cully his story, saying he would stop his rainmaking. He left the bookcase with Cully’s family, and Cully’s father took him to a train station.
Eben asks Cully if Upton told how he did his rainmaking, but Cully says he did not ask. Eben writes the story in his notebook and then leaves with Jeb.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs takes the form of a frame story coupled with multiple embedded narratives. This structure reinforces the novel’s themes—in particular, Fostering Community Through Storytelling. The titular wonders feature in stories from diverse narrators, offering different points of view. Eben learns the previously unknown and extraordinary stories of people in the small community of Sassafras Springs, Missouri, and as he does so, a portrait of the town emerges for readers as well, highlighting storytelling’s role as a bridge between people.
Eben’s narration establishes the necessity for this kind of community-building. As Eben reflects on the adult world of his hometown, he notes that “[f]olks in Sassafras Springs [are] usually friendly enough, but they [expect] their neighbors to mind their own business” (20). In other words, the adults in town are too absorbed by their daily lives to take more than a superficial interest in the lives of others. Eben’s quest revitalizes the community by prompting people to recall stories of their childhood. As Eben asks Mrs. Pritchard for wonders, she suddenly “remember[s]” the story of her doll. Cully rejoices in having visitors, as “folks don’t stop by” his house normally (44). The novel conveys that children’s curiosity and creativity can spark change in adults, who often forget their childhood selves and lead individual lives.
The novel’s structure also facilitates Eben’s character arc. As the narrator and protagonist of the story, Eben engages in a journey of discovery and growth. At the beginning of the novel, Eben is a young boy who feels lost and restricted in the small town of Sassafras Springs, believing there is “nothing to see” in his world (4). He thinks that the community is “invisible” as it does not even have “dots on the map” (1). Eben is also limited by class, growing up in a struggling rural community of farmers. His family struggles economically, and Eben often helps his father with farmwork. However, Eben finds comfort in books and is fascinated by the idea of traveling the world. His reading about the Seven Wonders of the World emphasizes his curiosity and desire for exploration, but he has not realized that he can satisfy these impulses within his own town; his mind is “a million miles away” (3). Aunt Pretty’s prompt to Eben to “wake up and see the world” foreshadows his character journey (3), while Eben’s father’s challenge to find “seven wonders” in Sassafras Springs serves as the novel’s inciting incident, thrusting Eben into a quest to discover the ordinary and the extraordinary. As Eben engages with the townsfolk’s different perspectives, each story advances this journey with elements of magical realism that change his perception of his surroundings.
More specifically, the embedded stories highlight The Importance of Imagination in Childhood. The anthropomorphic doll that “worked a miracle” and saved Mrs. Pritchard’s life as a child is an example (29). The doll “talked” to Mrs. Pritchard, awakening her from deathly illness—a “magical” narrative element that conveys the idea that a simple toy can be transformative for a child, “awakening” their imagination. Cully’s story about the mysterious rainmaker is another extraordinary story that stimulates Eben’s imagination about his hometown. The rainmaker’s bookcase, which saved him from drowning in the river, also keeps Cully’s shack from falling. This underlines the figuratively life-saving significance of stories and, by extension, creativity and “wonder.” Eben’s transformation starts as he realizes that simple things can acquire extraordinary value: “After all, even the Great Pyramid never held up a man’s house” (60). The use of magical realism throughout the story thus emphasizes that imagination is crucial for children’s character formation and growth.
Eben’s search for wonders also introduces the theme of Finding a Sense of Place. He embarks on his journey believing that Sassafras Springs has little to offer. His doubts about discovering anything interesting or extraordinary suggest his disconnection from his environment. In this, Sassafras Springs itself emerges as a symbol that emphasizes Eben’s need to find meaning in his surroundings. While the boy thinks he knows “every clump of dirt” in Sassafras Springs (13), he plans to scan every part of the town to discover wonders. The town becomes central to his quest as a place of potential wonder and excitement, emphasizing that a sense of place is key to Eben’s transformation and growth.
The wonders themselves serve as a motif that challenges ideas of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Eben reads that wonders are “marvels” that are “awe-inspiring” and longs for a “spell” that would transform his daily life. By the time Eben rejects the idea that Mrs. Saylor’s expensive pearls are a “wonder,” however, it is clear that something more than rareness is required. Eben finds wonders in unexpected instances with the stories of his teacher and a marginalized man. Hence, Eben realizes that wonders must have special meaning in a person’s life and can be found among ordinary people.
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By Betty G. Birney
