88 pages • 2 hours read
Jordan SonnenblickDrums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004A 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 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Quadruple Uh-Oh”
At the next All-City Band rehearsal, Mr. Watras announces a new rule that high school students will have to perform community service hours every semester to graduate, starting immediately. This new requirement means that a lot of band members will have to drop out of All-City to have time to do the community service hours. During the rehearsal, Steven notices that Renee and Annette are whispering together in the audience, which is unusual because they do not usually hang out. After the rehearsal, Annette announces that she and Renee have devised a plan for everyone to remain in All-City Band and get their community service hours by turning the final concert into a fundraiser to raise money to cover Jeffrey’s medical bills. If they charge $15 a ticket, hold a bake sale, and sell advertising space in the concert program, they can raise as much as $20,750. Mr. Watras agrees to the plan. However, when Steven tells his parents about the benefit concert, his parents, especially his dad, are against the idea because they do not want to accept charity. During the argument, his mom begins to feel sick and goes to throw up.
Chapter 17 Summary: “A Men’s Journey”
Since Steven’s mom has a stomach bug, he and his dad take Jeffrey to his appointment at the hospital in Philadelphia the next day. Jeffrey is thrilled that they are all going on “a men’s journey” together. On the way to Philadelphia, Jeffrey realizes that he has forgotten Matt Medic. Since they are running late and can’t turn back, Jeffrey asks Steven to take Matt Medic’s place and help him stay brave during the procedures.
Inside the Children’s Hospital, Steven is overwhelmed by the number of young cancer patients. He notices one girl in particular who is about his age and talking on a cell phone. When Jeffrey falls asleep while getting drugs through an IV, Steven takes his sticks and practice pad and goes in search of a private place to practice. After playing for awhile, he notices the girl he saw earlier watching him. She introduces herself as Samantha, also known as Sam. When Steven tells her he is Jeffrey’s brother, she tells him that Jeffrey talks about him all the time. They go to the snow-cone machine together and talk for a long time. Samantha tells him that she has ALL, like Jeffrey, but has had two relapses in the last four years. Now she rarely gets to leave the hospital. When Steven asks about her family, she tells him that her mom is a single parent and that her older sister is in college. Samantha and her sister used to be close, but her sister rarely visits her at the hospital and never talks to her very long on the phone. Before they go to bed, Sam asks Steven to promise that he will stay with his brother, “no matter what” (232). Steven promises and gives her his drumsticks as a birthday present. He tells her he will give her drum lessons the next time he is at the hospital.
Chapter 18 Summary: “I’m a Man Now”
The next day Steven is so busy with Jeffrey that he doesn’t have time to say goodbye to Sam. As they are getting ready to leave, Jeffrey’s doctor tells them that they need to keep a very close eye on Jeffrey because he might be at risk for liver failure, which could be fatal. If Jeffrey starts to look “at all yellow, in his skin tone or around the eyes” (235), or if he gets a fever, they need to take him to urgent care immediately. On the drive home, Steven’s dad thanks Steven for coming with him to Philadelphia and tells him that he is “turning into a good man” (236). He also tells Steven that he is now okay with the benefit concert, although he might not be able to attend because he has so much work during tax season. Steven is upset that his dad isn’t coming to his big concert but then remembers how lucky he is compared to Annette, “who practiced all year for a concert she wouldn’t play in,” and Sam, “who might be dying all by herself in the hospital while her sister parties it up at college” (237).
The next few weeks of school are very busy as everyone prepares for the concert. Annette and Renee succeed in selling lots of tickets and advertising space. Meanwhile, Steven stays busy practicing the drums, keeping up with his schoolwork, and reading books that Mrs. Galley lends him about childhood leukemia to help him “process his feelings” (241). Steven finds the books helpful and notices that his dad has also begun to read the books.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Steven gets the opportunity to learn more about Jeffrey’s illness and treatment when he and his dad accompany Jeffrey to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. At the hospital, Steven realizes how lucky they are that Jeffrey seems to have a good chance of survival, especially after meeting Samantha. Sam is the same age as Steven, but it has been a long time since she has been able to attend school. As a result, she is fascinated by Steven’s stories about his everyday life as the experiences that seem so ordinary to him represent a normal adolescent existence that she will probably never be able to have. Above all, Sam reminds Steven about the importance of sibling relationships by explaining how devastated she has been by the fact that her own older sibling rarely makes time to visit her.
On the drive back from the hospital, Steven is thrilled by the fact that his dad calls him “a man,” as he sees it as a sign that his dad is acknowledging the maturity he has shown over the last few months. Steven further demonstrates this growth when, after his dad tells him that he won’t be able to attend his concert, he resolves not to get upset and instead thinks of Annette, Sam, and Jeffrey, all of whom are less fortunate than him in different ways. The fact that he and his dad are reading the books recommended by Mrs. Galley about childhood leukemia to deal with their feelings suggest that both characters are now fully committed to focusing on the things they can change. After months of struggling against his negative thoughts and emotions, Steven has finally learned that “your mind is something you always CAN change” (242).
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