43 pages • 1 hour read
Jerry SpinelliA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Suds confesses his wrongdoings to Mom. He feels guilty about how poorly he has treated others, and he realizes that being a rat made him miserable. No matter how much attention and admiration he received from other kids because of his behavior, Suds didn’t like the person he was when he was a rat. Mom explains that although Suds thought that becoming a rat was the first step to becoming a man, it was only when he stopped being a rat that he became a man. The act of taking accountability for his actions is proof of his maturity. Suds decides that from now on he’ll just be a kid, and he is relieved to discover that Mom has rescued Winky from the backyard. Winky is there on Suds’s bed, waiting for him like always.
Suds walks in on his father watching E.T. When E.T. dies, Dad tears up and confesses that he always cries at that part of the movie. Suds snuggles into his dad’s lap and assures him that he does, too.
As the action of the novel winds down into the denouement, the final stages of the coming-of-age journey are fulfilled when Suds comes to embrace a new level of maturity.
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