43 pages • 1 hour read
Holly Goldberg SloanShort
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017A 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 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary
It is opening night. Julia is nervous about the show, but her mother comforts her with kind words and ginger ale. Julia thanks her mother for making her audition. At the theater, it is revealed that the Wizard and Gillian are dating now, but when Gianni brings flowers to Olive (instead of the now taken Gillian), Olive is not impressed. As Julia reflects on this, she recalls Shawn Barr’s advice that there “are always two things happening in any situation: What we see, and what we don’t see” (254). Julia decides to investigate the growing “adult world” of romance and heartbreak while also considering what she might bring as a gift to her castmates.
Chapter 27 Summary
The show begins and the Munchkins line up in the wings waiting to come onstage. Almost immediately, Julia notices that the Munchkins’ part in the play is not going the way they rehearsed it: The Munchkins are fidgety, the sets are still wet, there’s not enough space on the stage, they are singing too loud, and they aren’t at their marks. Both Julia and Olive are disappointed with the performance, but they quickly change into their flying monkey costumes and prepare for their next scene. The rest of the play, including the flying monkey scenes, goes according to plan, and when it comes time for bows, the cast and Shawn Barr receive a standing ovation.
Chapter 28 Summary
Julia stays later than the rest of the Munchkins to attend the cast party with Mrs. Chang, and she sleeps in until noon the next day. When she wakes up, she goes looking for the review of the play from the art critic Brock Wacker. Finding it online, she sees that Wacker praised every part of the play—except for the Munchkins. Julia is shocked and concerned for Randy, who doesn’t have a second part that he can take pride in. Randy is over at his new friend Gene’s house, so Julia rides her bike there as fast as she can, imagining how distraught Randy and Gene must be. She arrives to find that they are wholly unconcerned with what Wacker said about the Munchkins; Randy is convinced that “[they]’ll get better” (277). Furious with his attitude towards the review, Julia leaves Gene’s house. She pedals so fast on her bike that it crashes into some bushes, so she walks the rest of the way home, leaving the bike behind.
Chapter 29 Summary
As Julia walks the long way back to her house, she’s tired, thirsty, and convinced that she will die on this walk home and be eaten by coyotes. Mrs. Chang pulls up alongside Julia in her car and offers her a ride. Julia tells Mrs. Chang that she read Wacker’s review and that she’s worried the Munchkins have disappointed Shawn Barr. Mrs. Chang, not fazed by the review, tells Julia that she will take her to talk with Shawn Barr. At first, Julia tries to get out of going to see the director, but the time spent listening to classical music in Mrs. Chang’s car calms her down a bit. When they arrive at the Bay Motel, Shawn Barr is sunbathing by the pool. Shawn Barr tells Julia that he is not disappointed with their performance and that they will have time to fix the few mistakes from opening night. He stresses that “this is the time to find the joy” (284). After Shawn Barr’s encouragement, the critic’s review stops bothering Julia. Later that afternoon, the Munchkins arrive 30 minutes early to practice, and by the end of the week all their mistakes have been fixed.
Chapter 30 Summary
It is the night of the final performance, and Julia’s family and a school friend named Stephen Boyd are in the audience to see Julia’s last show. After the cast takes its final bows, Stephen walks up to Julia and invites her over to meet his new dog, Phyllis. Julia is charmed that Stephen noticed her on the stage, remembers that Ramon died, and wants to spend time with her before school starts. The other cast members have said their goodbyes already, except for Olive, who lives in town and has made plans to continue spending time with Julia. Julia is having trouble putting her feelings into words: She’s proud of the play but sad about it being over. She notices how the sets and the costumes are already fading from people’s memories. Mrs. Chang offers to drive Julia home one last time, giving Julia time to say goodbye to Shawn Barr. As a parting gift, Julia gives Shawn Barr her wooden carving of Ramon, and in return, Shawn Barr gives her his copy of the script, filled with his notes and ideas. Julia is deeply moved and reflects on how Shawn Barr saw and encouraged a new part of her this summer. She tells him that she might be a director someday, and he tells her that if he’d had a daughter, he would have wanted her to be like Julia. As Julia and Mrs. Chang prepare to leave the theater, Julia thinks, “I grew this summer. Not on the outside, but on the inside. And that’s the only place where growing really matters” (296).
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
Mirroring Julia’s earlier struggles with expectations and change, opening night of the play does not go entirely according to Julia’s plan, and the Munchkins receive a negative review from the art critic. Overall, the art critic’s review is positive, but Julia focuses on the negative elements, repeating her tendency to fixate on her own negative traits while ignoring the positive ones. Randy’s response acts as a foil to Julia’s. Where Julia is shocked, embarrassed, and stuck in her emotions after reading the review, Randy focuses on the positive aspects and seems unfazed. Randy’s unaffected attitude puts Julia’s concern in sharp relief; the importance of the play to Julia emerges in the contrast between her response to her brother’s. Valuing her art is not necessarily a bad thing, but two of Julia’s mentors, Mrs. Chang and Shawn Barr, show her that she must also learn to move through the criticism, fix mistakes, and embrace joy. Through these mentor’s actions, the author demonstrates the importance of mentor figures in a young person’s life, suggesting that caring adults can support children as they learn to cope with disappointment and criticism.
The negative review also brings into sharper focus The Power and Purpose of Theater. Wacker explicitly singles out the professional actors for praise while remarking that “the local kids cast in the role of the Munchkins leave much to be desired” (273). Julia instinctively bristles at this, feeling that it is unfair to hold children to the same standards as adult professionals, and the response of Shawn Barr suggests that she is right. The novel implies that art is meant to uplift not only the observer but the artist and that this is truer still in the realm of amateur art. Shawn Barr understands this despite being one of the “veterans” Wacker mentions by name. While he of course wants the production to live up to his vision for it, he is also interested in how people like Julia can grow via participating in the production, irrespective of results.
In the closing chapter, the author demonstrates how Julia has grown through her time in the theater and accomplished her two summer goals. Her conversation with Stephen illustrates this growth—and not only because the novel hints he may be Julia’s first crush. Rather, Julia’s response when Stephen mentions his new dog shows the progress she has made in Processing Grief; her thoughts do not immediately flit to her loss, and when Stephen himself mentions Ramon, she feels touched by his concern rather than frozen with grief.
However, it is Julia’s final conversation with Shawn Barr that most clearly reveals her character growth. When faced with saying goodbye, Julia decides to give Shawn Barr the wooden carving of Ramon, showing that she is now willing to let go of Ramon and more willing to accept change. Where Julia at the start of the novel was in denial about Ramon’s death and alone in her grief, at the end of the novel she’s able to say goodbye to the theater and confront the fact that she will likely not see Shawn Barr again. Shawn Barr gives Julia his script notebook, which the author marks as an extension of the scrapbook symbol: “The other stuff I’ve been collecting is great, but this is different” (294). Throughout the novel, Julia has been developing an appreciation for art—specifically, writing. When Julia recognizes that the script is the best way to capture her memories from the summer, the author foreshadows Julia’s potential future as a writer or a director. Julia’s growth as a character is informed by her mentors, their perspectives, and the experiences she has shared with them as part of the theater. Ultimately, Julia learns that her internal growth is infinitely more important than her external growth.
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By Holly Goldberg Sloan
