Lizzie Bright And The Buckminster Boy

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-10

Chapter 11-Afterword

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary

Oppressed by the town’s never-ending criticism and scrutiny of him, Turner escapes to the coast outside of Phippsburg. There, Lizzie stumbles across him while she’s out clamming. Turner is struck by Lizzie’s confidence and authenticity. She teaches him to play baseball in the town’s distinctive style, causing Turner to lose track of time and earn his father’s reprimand for getting dirty and being late for lunch. Turner’s mother stands up for her son and sends him outside. Turner heads toward the field where the town’s boys usually play baseball, but discovers that a storm has descended on the town. Inspired by Lizzie’s confidence, he stands out in the rain with his arms outstretched.

Chapter 4 Summary

The day after the storm, Turner heads back to the coast with a baseball and his baseball glove to try and find Lizzie. Along the way, he sees Mrs. Hurd, who gives him advice on fist-fighting since she witnessed Turner’s altercation with Willis in Chapter 2. Turner and Lizzie reunite at the coast. After they practice playing baseball with Turner’s glove and ball, Turner helps Lizzie dig clams, and Lizzie invites him out to Malaga Island. Turner accepts his new friend’s invitation.

On the island, Turner meets Lizzie’s grandfather, and a rambunctious family of young children named the Tripps. Lizzie takes him to the cemetery, and he learns more about her family. Her mother died and is buried in the cemetery. Turner and Lizzie spend a delightful afternoon together skipping rocks. When he gets back to his house, Turner finds that many of the townsmen are meeting with his father to further discuss evicting the residents of Malaga Island from their homes. The other men, particularly a prominent businessman named Mr. Stonecrop, pull Turner into the discussion, trying to convince his father that Turner’s future in Phippsburg is best served by turning out the Malaga Island community. At first, Turner’s father is uncertain about how he feels about the scheme, but when he learns that Turner was out on Malaga Island with Lizzie, he fears for his son’s reputation. The townsmen also insinuate that Lizzie and her grandfather are using Turner to gain favor in Phippsburg and ally his father’s church with their cause to stay on Malaga Island.

Chapter 5 Summary

Although Turner’s father forbids him from visiting Malaga again, Turner continues to meet Lizzie on the mainland shore almost every day. One day, Lizzie falls while climbing a cliff with Turner and hits her head on a rock, bleeding heavily. Turner frantically tries to row them back to Malaga, but the tides are against him, and he drifts out into open water. Despite his panic and worry about Lizzie, Turner experiences a magical moment when he finds that the boat is amid a group of whales. He wordlessly communes with one near his boat, which stops just out of his reach as he tries to touch it. A woozy Lizzie tells Turner that when he understands what the whales are saying, he will be allowed to touch one.

Turner steers the boat back toward land, where he finds that the whole town is out in its boats looking for Turner. It’s been rumored that he’s with Lizzie, and the town is shocked to discover that the two are indeed together. Lizzie’s grandfather whisks her away to a doctor’s care, and Turner returns home with his parents. Despite efforts from Mr. Stonecrop to decry Turner’s actions, Reverend Buckminster reacts to his son with more understanding than Turner expects.

Chapters 3-5 Analysis

The conflict between Reverend Buckminster and the town’s leaders becomes apparent in Chapters 3-5. Reverend Buckminster receives an enormous amount of pressure from the town’s businessmen and the church’s deacons to support their plan to evict the Malaga residents. Turner’s father tries to appease these prominent and powerful men, but his doubts are already apparent in his reaction to Turner’s aid of Lizzie in Chapter 5. When Mr. Stonecrop says that Turner’s association with Lizzie will raise eyebrows in the town, Reverend Buckminster says that “the congregation must think what it will think” (88). The narrator compares Mr. Stonecrop’s threatening reply to “barbed wire” (88), implying that the entire family will come to feel trapped by Phippsburg’s expectations and prejudices.

A defining moment occurs as Turner encounters the whales that move and inspire him to discover who he wants to be as a young adult. Although he doesn’t yet know what the whales are trying to “tell” him, Turner’s sense of awe and wonder lead him to wonder what he can learn from his new home. The question of what the whales—and later, his father—are trying to “tell” him create a sense of intrigue for Turner and reduces his urge to leave for “the Territories” like he often dreams of doing in the story’s beginning. This intrigue, created by Turner’s preliminary ideas about his encounter with the whales, creates a sense of momentum in the plot and compels the reader to continue the book.