43 pages • 1 hour read
Eva BuntingSummer of Riley
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000A 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 12-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Content Warning: This section includes discussions of animal euthanasia.
Grace and William put up flyers about Riley. Soon after, they learn that Ellis has been putting up posters supporting the Sultan and calling for Riley to be euthanized. Dorothy tells William that Douglas called to ask how he is doing. William is dismissive of his father’s attempts to connect, which upsets both Grace and Dorothy. William and Grace spend the rest of the afternoon sending emails and letters to people in their town, calling on everyone to support Riley and help him win his appeal. William lays out a calendar, detailing how many days Riley has left before he will be euthanized. He remembers working on the unfinished pond with his grandfather, who assured him that they would get it done, one step at a time. He decided to apply this philosophy to Riley’s appeal.
Stephen calls and assures Dorothy that Riley is doing well at the pound. William is not allowed to visit Riley but wonders if he can sneak in to see him. Stephen does not want to break the rules and hurt Riley’s chances in the process. The commissioners have given William a chance to change their minds about Riley, so William must make the most of that chance. William reflects that Ellis does not care about the Sultan but just wants all dogs to suffer for what happened to his cat.
Chapter 13 Summary
The next day, as William and Grace put up flyers, they receive mixed opinions from people in town. Some support them, but others believe that Riley should be euthanized. They find some of Ellis’s flyers, which describe the Sultan being chased “BY A VICIOUS, UNLEASHED DOG, NAME OF RILEY” (106), and alongside, there is a petition calling for the “death penalty” for Riley. William and Grace rush to make their own petition to save Riley. The next day, they find that all of their flyers have been taken down. When they confront Ellis and Duane about this, the boys are cruel to them. Later, William and Grace see a crowd gathering on Main Street as people debate the case. Some people sign William’s petition and give him advice about how to discourage Riley from chasing livestock.
When William runs into Peachie, he nervously asks how the Sultan is. Before Peachie can reply, a TV news reporter named Trixie Allen approaches William. She wants to interview William and Peachie about Riley. Peachie refuses to speak with her except to note that she is not angry with William, who is just trying to defend his dog. Trixie turns to William and asks if he will give his side of the story. William explains that Riley is the perfect dog. He tries to be fair to Peachie and the Sultan when he describes what happened. When his interview is finished, Trixie begins to interview Ellis and Duane, to William’s distress.
Chapter 14 Summary
William is glad that Riley’s story is on TV but unhappy that Ellis and Duane were also interviewed. William, Dorothy, Grace, and her family watch the broadcast. Under normal circumstances, Peachie would have come over to watch him on TV, too. However, he has complicated feelings about her now. He also misses his grandfather, his father, and Riley. William feels like so many people are disappearing from his life. In the interview, Ellis comes across as being much nicer than he usually is. Trixie announces that the channel will host a poll; people can vote on whether they think Riley is innocent. Several people congratulate William on the interview; even his father calls to praise him. William is still upset with Douglas and accuses him of helping the animal control officers take Riley away. Dorothy tries to persuade William that his father acted with his best interests at heart. She believes that William needs to let go of his anger.
With 17 days left for Riley’s appeal, William and Grace send their petition, with 103 signatures, to the commissioners. They continue to put up flyers. The news channel announces the results of their public opinion poll: 32 voters believe Riley should be saved, while 54 think he should be euthanized. William does not understand how strangers can wish for his dog’s death. Dorothy tries to comfort him by saying that the opinions of the commissioners are the only ones that matter. William worries that the poll will influence the outcome of the case.
Chapter 15 Summary
The big poster that William ordered from the print shop is ready. William and Grace pick it up and march up and down Main Street holding it. Most people ignore them. As they are about to leave, they spot Ellis and Duane. The boys confront them and try to snatch the poster. William and Ellis get into a physical altercation. A woman tries to stop them from fighting, and Duane rips the poster in half. William knows that the poster is ruined but is determined not to give up. He decides to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper. A reader replies to his letter, arguing that Riley cannot be rehomed with people who are unaware of his history. William is angry that another person is calling for Riley’s death.
With eight days left until Riley’s case, the lawyer tells William that they simply have to wait for the commissioners’ decision. Stephen starts to come over often for dinner. He assures William that Riley is doing well and gets along with the other dogs at the pound. One night, William realizes that he is starting to forget what Riley looks like. Distraught, he vows to think of Riley every night to keep his memory alive. Unable to sleep, William goes downstairs. He sees his mother and Stephen dancing to a romantic song. William realizes that he is looking at something he does not really understand.
Chapter 16 Summary
There are three days left until the commissioners will reach a decision about Riley. Grace tries to convince William to attend the town’s summertime picnic the next day. William does not want to go; he says he will be too worried about Riley to be any fun. He sees Peachie coming up the driveway and starts to panic. He calls for his mother, who comes outside. Peachie explains that she and the Sultan are going away to spend time with her sister. She says they will be back; she does not want to be driven out of her own home. William does not want to drive Peachie away, but some other people in town have been harassing her about Riley’s case. Peachie reveals that she has withdrawn her complaint against Riley as long as he does not return to the neighborhood. Before she leaves, she says she hopes that Riley will live. William is sorry that she is being harassed, but he believes she started the conflict. Grace and Dorothy both disagree with him.
Chapters 12-16 Analysis
William makes some progress with Navigating Change in this section of the novel. He tries to use what he learned from his grandfather about handling tasks and challenges one step at a time, without getting too overwhelmed, and he applies this strategy to his plans to try and save Riley. This is a good step in the right direction that shows that William can maintain connections to the past while still working toward a better future, even if it is more turbulent than he imagined it would be. However, his other actions in this section indicate that his journey of accepting change is not yet complete. William wallows in sadness as he misses his loved ones who are no longer with him: When he watches his interview on TV, he keenly feels the absences of Peachie, his father, his grandfather, and Riley, all of whom are absent for different reasons. William desperately wants to return to a past when everyone was together, but even the past that he envisions is fiction: He only got Riley after his grandfather’s death, so there was never a time when his neighbor, father, grandfather, and dog would have all been there together.
Unlike William, Dorothy has embraced the changes in her life and moves toward the future with positivity and hope. She tries to give William good advice, telling him to let go of his anger toward his father so that he can stop feeling stuck in the past. However, William is not yet ready to accept this advice; he is dealing with too many strong emotions to let them go and be at peace with the past. On the other hand, Dorothy is no longer angry with her ex-husband, and she has started a romantic relationship with Stephen.
William is also getting better at Seeing Both Sides of an Argument. Although he is still upset with Peachie, he is no longer blinded by his anger and understands her perspective, too. Likewise, Peachie explicitly says that she is not angry with William and that she knows he is just trying to protect his dog. Both of them have taken a step in the right direction that will allow them to see the merits of each other’s arguments and find some common ground. Reckoning with the diverse perspectives of the townspeople is another matter, however, as everyone has a firm, emotional opinion on the matter. For William, the stakes feel very high, so everyone who wants to euthanize Riley seems like a heartless enemy. In fact, many people have good reasons for wanting to protect the townspeople and livestock from a dog that could be dangerous, just like William and his supporters have good reasons for not wanting a dog to die.
Although the case is complex, William firmly believes in The Power of Perseverance, no matter what the cost. He is extremely organized in his approach, and he is willing to keep fighting for Riley in spite of adversity. He and Grace keep putting up posters and handing out flyers even when people respond vitriolically to their attempts to save Riley’s life. Even after Ellis and Duane attack William and Grace and tear up the poster they waited so long for, William refuses to be silenced. He immediately thinks up other strategies to reach more people about the issue, and he ends up penning a letter to the editor of a newspaper. William is also willing to speak to a TV reporter about the issue, speaking in a mature and balanced way that wins him praise from his friends and family.
Ellis, who plays the antagonist’s role in the novel, is less compassionate in his arguments than William: He is not fighting to protect the Sultan but to get revenge for his cat’s death. Ellis’s signs call for the “death penalty” for Riley, which is an egregious misrepresentation of the issue. The death penalty is a harsh and extremely controversial punishment that is not comparable to the humane euthanasia of aggressive animals to ensure community safety. Although William disagrees with Ellis’s position on the issue, he does not object to the use of the term “death penalty;” he, too, feels as though what is happening to Riley is a grave miscarriage of justice akin to the execution of a human being.
