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chapter 1
The Watsons are sitting on the couch lined up freezing their butts off. Daddy cool (Byron) was'nt letting anyone touch him because he was officially a juvenile delinquent. Daniel (Daddy) was making fun of Hambone Hanson because he liked Wilona (Momma) but Wilona chose Daniel over Hambone Hanson. -
chapter 2
Kenny is hiding behind the bus driver because he gets teased because of his lazy eye. He hides behind him because he feels the bus driver will say something to the people who are bullying him. Then one day, two new kids come on the bus. Their names were Rufus and Cody. At the end of the chapter, Kenny says "Why would God send me a savior in such raggedy clothes?" -
chapter 3
Kenny and Lj Jones are playing in Kennys room with Kennys dinosaurs when Lj decides to trick Kenny to play the all time Nazi and U.S. troops (dinosaurs) battle and Lj kills the dinosaurs and buroes them in the backyard and after Kenny has to go inside Lj starts to steal all of the dinosaurs -
chapter 4
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chapter 5
Byron starts a "war" between the nazis and himself and so he burns the "nazis" and throws them into the toilet. Momma swore to God to burn him if he ever did it again. She grabs him by the neck and hauls him downstairs, where he, surprisingly, doesn't fight against it. When Momma has the match in hand, Joey yells to wait. Joey has conflicted feelings because she is so religious and wouldn't want to make God mad but at the same time doesn't want Momma to hurt Byron. Finally when Momma has told Jo -
chapter 6
When Momma asks Byron and Kenny to go to Mitchell's store to get some milk, bread, and tomato paste for her, Byron predictably complains, but Momma makes him go with Kenny anyway. As the boys are leaving, Byron asks for money to pay for the groceries but Momma tells him to just sign for them. Byron immediately concludes that the family is on welfare. Momma tells him that although the family has received government aid in the past, they do not now. The Watsons have simply negotia -
chapter 7
This was when Byron got his hair conked. Then Mr Watson shaved his head. -
chapter 8
The family purchases new items for the Brown Bomber because they are going to go to Birmingham, Alabama and leave Byron to live with Grandma Sands for the entire summer. -
chapter 9
On Sunday, Kenny again gets up early, and he finds his father in the Brown Bomber listening to records on the Ultra Glide. Kenny joins him, and after they sit companionably through "a couple of jive songs," Kenny asks Dad if Byron really has to go to Alabama. After thinking for a minute, Dad tells Kenny that though they will all miss Byron, he has some important things to learn, and despite all that Momma and Dad have done in an effort to guide him, Byron is not progressing in the right directio -
chapter 10
When the Watsons finally cross the border between Michigan and Ohio, they pull over at a rest stop just outside of Toledo. The children are impressed with the area, which looks like it is "chopped right out of the forest and [has] picnic tables made out of giant logs." They are disgusted by the outhouses at the rest stop, however; there is no running water, and the toilets consist of a seat placed over a "great big, open black hole" from which emanates a terrible smell. -
chapter 11
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Byron, Kenny, Joey, and Momma sleep for most of the rest of the way as Dad drives through the night and into the next day, covering nearly a thousand miles over eighteen straight hours and bringing the family safely to Alabama. The Ultra Glide stops working, and Dad, exhausted, resorts to listening to country music (which he hates) on the radio. Kenny wakes up and spends a little time keeping Dad company as they traverse the final miles of the trip, but he falls asleep again before they reach -
chapter 12
The heat is stifling in Birmingham. When Kenny awakens after a fitful sleep on his first morning at Grandma Sands's house, he finds that Byron is already gone from the bed they share. Looking out the window, Kenny sees Byron, Dad, and Mr. Robert standing under a tree with a dog, and he quickly runs out "to be with the guys." Mr. Robert tells the boys that they will soon become accustomed to the heat. -
chapter 13
Kenny had only "halfway listened" when Grandma Sands had warned them about going to Collier's Landing to swim, so when he and Joey and Byron come to the crossroads that requires them to choose between the Landing and the public swimming area, he is anxious to choose the former. A posted, handwritten warning signed by Joe Collier only intensifies his curiosity, but Joey and even Byron have no inclination to explore the forbidden area. -
chapter 14
Kenny spends the next few days in a state of shocked lethargy. Byron has made him promise not to tell anyone what happened at Collier's Landing, and the family simply assumes that Kenny's weakness and malaise is just a reaction to the heat. On Sunday, when Joey leaves for church, Kenny says good-bye to her and notices that she is wearing "little lacy white socks and her shiny, shiny black shoes." -
chapter 15
Joey does not know what a close call she had when her church was bombed in Birmingham, and the Watsons all return to Flint before she has a chance to find out. Momma and Dad are most worried about Kenny, who continues to exhibit signs of shock. They do not know that he almost died at Collier's Landing. Although they suspect that he might have seen something in the aftermath of the bombing at the church, they are not sure because he insists that he only left Grandma Sands's house that day to tell
