47 pages • 1 hour read
Janae MarksFrom the Desk of Zoe Washington
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A 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 31-36 and EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary
Zoe knows she might lose her phone for lying about the movie, but there is no time to call Professor Thomas before they arrive home. Trevor’s mother tells Grandma how Zoe and Trevor lied and used a cab; Grandma calls Zoe’s mother home from work. Trevor and his mother go to their home.
Grandma is disappointed that Zoe went back on her word about finding the alibi witness. Grandma partially blames herself for modeling dishonesty. Zoe tries to tell Grandma that Professor Thomas remembers meeting Marcus, but Grandma will not allow her to call Professor Thomas, and she insists that Zoe turn over her phone instead. Zoe screams that she hates Grandma, a reaction she immediately regrets but cannot take back; she does not apologize. She gives up the phone.
When Mom arrives home, Grandma admits her role in Zoe’s correspondence with Marcus. Mom is furious. In the ensuing argument, it comes out that Mom has thrown out all of Marcus’s many letters to Zoe over the years. Zoe is furious as well: “Those were my letters” (246). Mom says she never read them and knows nothing about their contents. Trevor’s mom rings the doorbell, interrupting their argument.
Chapter 32 Summary
Trevor’s mom says she brought Trevor to apologize, but Zoe insists that it was her fault they went to Harvard Square. Zoe tries to explain her rationale for Marcus’s innocence and tells her mother to call Professor Thomas, but Mom refuses, shutting off Zoe’s phone and forbidding Zoe from using the computer, too. Mom also nixes the chance of Zoe applying for Kids Bake Challenge!. Trevor and his mother leave.
Grandma attempts to persuade Mom that she is being irrational, but Mom tells Grandma to leave. Grandma then admits she let Zoe talk to Marcus on the phone too, bringing on a new wave of fury from Mom. Mom threatens Grandma with no more contact with Zoe if Grandma “ever go[es] behind my back like that again” (251). Zoe is frustrated and miserable; the truth is very close and yet unreachable without her phone or email.
Chapter 33 Summary
Zoe spends most of Labor Day Weekend in her room, reading and writing journal entries. She has trouble sleeping and has bad dreams about Marcus being guilty after all. Maya is home, but Zoe, being grounded, knows she will not see her. She does not talk to Grandma when she visits on Friday. On Monday, Zoe dresses for her last day at Ari’s Cakes, but Dad tells her she will not be going. Zoe is upset to miss the busy holiday scene at the bakery but does not argue. On the bus the next morning to the first day of seventh grade, she is thrilled to see and chat with Maya. She makes a point of inviting Trevor to sit across the aisle and shares the chocolate that Maya brought her from San Francisco with him.
Chapter 34 Summary
Later that week, Zoe’s parents shock her by telling her that they went to speak with Professor Thomas. Grandma is there as well to share this news. Mom looks teary-eyed and upset. Dad plays the voice recording of Professor Thomas’s story which he intends to take to a lawyer. In the recording, Zoe hears Professor Thomas tell how she remembers Marcus coming to look at a futon at her yard sale. He noticed baby gear for sale and conversed with Professor Thomas about baby needs as he was going to be a father soon: “He was so young, still looked like a kid himself, but he seemed excited to become a dad” (263). He referred to the unborn baby as his “Little Tomato” and played the song for the Professor. Then he walked, leaving his car, to an ATM for cash for the futon. He returned but then said he no longer needed the futon as a friend had called to give a couch to Marcus instead. He chatted for a while with the Professor’s husband about the Celtics. It was dark by then.
Mom says they must get to the truth of Marcus’s conviction; she thinks he might be innocent now. Dad says he will share the recording with criminal lawyers and contact the Innocence Project. He compliments Zoe’s investigating skills, but she remains grounded. Zoe initiates a long hug with Mom; she cries with relief that the conflict is over between them. Mom tells Zoe she is open to talking about Marcus: “I understand that he’s part of your life now” (266). Zoe apologizes to Grandma, who tells her that she is proud of her. Zoe writes that night to Marcus, briefly explaining the events and the plan to contact lawyers and the Innocence Project.
Chapter 35 Summary
That weekend, Zoe’s parents insist on baking together as a family. They tell her to choose a Ruby Willow recipe, but Zoe chooses to bake her Froot Loop cupcake recipe instead. Zoe mentions the playlist based on Marcus’s recommendations, and Mom asks to hear it. They sing and dance while Dad runs to the store for Froot Loops. The cupcakes turn out excellent, and Mom takes a photo to send to Ari. Jason, Dad’s lawyer friend, calls. Zoe knows they have a meeting with Innocence Project the following week. Zoe asks if Mom can forgive Marcus if he did not commit the crime. Mom is emotional and says, “I hope you will forgive me for keeping him from you all these years” (273). Zoe gets the letter she wants to send to Marcus; Mom gets a stamp and offers to walk to the mailbox with her.
Chapter 36 Summary
Zoe visits Marcus in prison. Mom, Dad, and Grandma are there as well. As she waits in the visiting room for Marcus, Zoe thinks how the Innocence Project lawyers are optimistic. She would have liked to bring her Froot Loop cupcakes for Marcus but outside food items are against the rules. She settles for showing photos of her cupcakes on display at Ari’s Cakes. Zoe gets credit as the “featured baker” (276). When she finally meets Marcus, she hugs him. He is emotional and calls her “Little Tomato.” He graciously thanks Mom and Dad for bringing Zoe and for raising her.
Grandma pulls Mom and Dad to the vending machine to give Zoe a chance to talk to Marcus. They chat about Zoe’s seventh grade year so far; she enjoys friends Trevor and Maya, goes to basketball games, likes baking snacks, and beats Trevor at horse occasionally. She met some of Trevor’s other basketball teammates who are nicer than Lincoln and Sean, with whom Trevor does not socialize anymore. Marcus and Zoe hug when it is time for Zoe to leave. She hopes Marcus can soon leave prison and is glad to have him in her life now.
Epilogue Summary
Marcus celebrates his birthday at Zoe’s house with Zoe, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Marcus’s parents, Trevor and his parents, Ariana and her husband, and Maya all in attendance. Zoe refers in her interior monologue to the “years instead of months” it took to free Marcus once the Innocence Project agreed to help him, and to the conviction of the actual murderer. As a birthday gift, Zoe gave Marcus an apron with “Big Tomato” embroidered on it and cookware.
Marcus says he has a gift for her, even though it is his birthday. Zoe opens the gift to reveal a stereo. Marcus bought records as well, working extra shifts at the bakery to pay for them. He also works a job at a legal nonprofit. He plays one of the new records, a Stevie Wonder album, and the song “Happy Birthday.” Marcus invites Zoe to dance. When the others come in, they dance as well. Zoe is amazed at the changes in her life since meeting Marcus and grateful that she has the chance to be closer to her father now that she helped him win his freedom.
Chapters 31-36 and Epilogue Analysis
Ironically, Zoe does not realize how effectively she sets the steps needed to free Marcus into motion. After the excitement of the forbidden quest to find Professor Thomas, the disappointment of the professor’s initial failure to recall Marcus, the sudden regained hope of the professor’s support, and an emotional, climactic argument with Mom and Grandma, Zoe faces her punishment with frustration. In this moment, Zoe’s childishness and irresponsibility are juxtaposed with her insight into the injustice of Marcus’s incarceration and Mom’s prevention of Zoe and Marcus’s relationship. Zoe has lied to nearly everyone in the book at this point in the novel, and struggles to honor her competing responsibilities at home and the bakery, but she is also mature enough to recognize the stakes of freeing Marcus. Mark’s complicates Zoe’s portrayal by indicating that Zoe, despite her youth, can see what the adults cannot: Marcus is an innocent victim of a biased legal system, and she deserves to have a relationship with her father.
Grounded, Zoe has no phone or computer to continue her research independently. Just as readers are about to learn what Professor Thomas has to say about Marcus, Zoe’s sudden inability to act or learn added information is anticlimactic (and emotionally frustrating). She loses the capacity to communicate or learn the details of what Professor remembers—a punishment far greater than the grounding. Her confinement to the house (and by her own choosing, her room) also symbolizes a small amount of the lack of freedom Marcus feels as a prisoner. Cut off and alone, she is not privy to any conversations or decision making beyond her bedroom walls.
Her time in isolation, though, has a transformative effect on Zoe. She witnessed—and participated in—emotional behavior and harsh words during the climactic argument with Mom and Grandma: Grandma’s judgment of Mom’s parenting, Mom’s harsh choice to throw away years’ worth of Marcus’s letters, and her own horrible words to Grandma: “I hate you!” (243). The escalation and impact of each piece of dishonesty (her own, Grandma’s, and her mother’s) are upsetting, but Zoe takes strong step in her character arc once she has time to process the events quietly and independently. For example, while she does not regret her attempt to determine the truth, Zoe’s bad dreams show questioning and concern, which constitutes a more mature reaction than earlier in the novel when her quick choices and dramatic vows sometimes showed impulsivity and naiveté.
After a quiet weekend with her books, journal, and Marcus’s letters, Zoe’s demeanor mimics Marcus’s in that she accepts this “fate” and becomes willing to wait out further developments. She accepts being unable to visit Maya and grumbles but does not argue with her parents when they forbid the last day of her internship. On the bus, she welcomes Trevor to join Maya and her, recalling how he felt ignored at summer’s end in previous school years. Her efforts to help Marcus have helped Zoe to develop more compassion for others and to think more carefully about her choices and behavior. Still, Mark’s does not undermine Zoe’s grief over losing her chance to help Marcus. This ambivalence regarding Zoe’s maturity and moral authority prepares the reader for the eventual twist that the adults in Zoe’s life recognize the importance of and continue Zoe’s work to free Marcus.
Zoe finds her reward for this patience and mature behavior when her parents seek out Professor Thomas themselves and decide to involve lawyers and the Innocence Project. The novel resolves all the concerns in the last chapter and epilogue, including Zoe’s happy acceptance of continued baking opportunities like being Ari’s Cakes “featured baker” in lieu of the Food Network show: “Forget about becoming a pastry chef when I grew up, I already was one” (276). In the most solid suggestion of her coming-of-age, her experiences culminate in a wise appreciation of the way in which she has come to know Marcus and his impact on her: “In the meantime, I was so thankful that I’d found his letter on my twelfth birthday, and that he was in my life now, where he belonged” (280).
