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48 pages 1 hour read

Kate DiCamillo

Beverly, Right Here

Kate DiCamilloFiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

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Chapters 16-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary

Iola puts on the wax lips, and her big glasses and mouth make Beverly laugh. Maureen exits her trailer to make sure everything’s fine. She harangues Beverly again, so Beverly tells her to shut up. Maureen threatens to call Iola’s son, Tommy Junior, and Iola reaffirms that Beverly is part of her family. Beverly wonders if Iola thinks she’s a fraud. Iola doesn’t think she’s a fraud, but Beverly reminds her that Iola doesn’t know Beverly. Iola claims she knows Beverly. Iola says everything will be OK, and she makes Beverly a tuna melt.

Chapter 17 Summary

Outside Mr. C’s, Jerome confronts Beverly about the tassel, but Beverly evades his questions. Mr. Denby summons her to his office, and Jerome makes an odious quip about her helping Mr. Denby count “all his money” (97).

Outside Zoom City, Beverly stares at the coin-operated horse, and Elmer says he’ll give Beverly a dime to ride it. Mr. Larksong, an older person with a cane, arrives, and he swears he’ll buy cigarettes today. Elmer says cigarettes aren’t the answer, and Larksong asks Beverly if she knows the answer. Beverly doesn’t know the answer, and Larksong praises her honesty. Larksong refers to Beverly as Elmer’s “friend.” Elmer and Beverly claim they’re not friends.

Larksong’s name comes from The Song of the Lark (1884), a French pastoral portrait by Jules Breton. Beverly hasn’t seen the painting, and Larksong calls it “a beauty.” What Beverly sees is Larksong’s dentures.

Chapter 18 Summary

As Beverly examines the countless goods for sale in Zoom City, she wonders why the world has so much “crap.” Elmer asks Beverly what she’s looking for. She wants to find the blue from the angel painting, but she tells Elmer to mind his business.

Larksong summons Beverly and shows her The Song of the Lark. There’s no lark in the painting, but that’s why the painting is called “song” of the lark. Beverly doesn’t think someone can paint a song, but Breton did. Larksong says Elmer is only 16 but got a full scholarship from Dartmouth. Larksong says Elmer will study art, but Elmer claims he’ll be an engineer.

Larksong keeps coughing; he battles lung cancer. After he leaves, Beverly asks Elmer to show her the book with the angel’s wings. Elmer says the painting’s title is Annunciation (DiCamillo invented it), and Elmer wonders why she likes it. Beverly admits she likes the blue wings. She tells Elmer her full name—Beverly Louise Tapinski. Elmer says he gets off work at five, but Beverly doesn’t care.

Chapter 19 Summary

In the phone booth, Beverly pictures her mom drinking and smoking cigarettes on the back porch and looking at the trees that grow sour oranges. After contemplating calling her mom and asking her to “watch over Buddy,” she returns to Zoom City, where Mrs. Deely gives her a Christian cartoon filled with stick figures, snakes, and words crammed into the speech bubbles. One stick figure stands on a mountain, but their speech bubble lacks words.

Chapter 20 Summary

Elmer claims Mrs. Deely hides in the bushes and gives her frightening cartoons to children riding the metal horse. Elmer doesn’t think Mrs. Deely should try to scare people—life is already scary. Beverly says Mrs. Deely didn’t scare her.

In the phone booth, Elmer feels like Hansel from the “Hansel and Gretel” fairytale. In other words, he feels like he’s in an oven. Beverly shows him the line about the crooked house and asks if he wrote it. Elmer claims he doesn’t write poetry. He asks Beverly why she likes Annunciation. Beverly says she likes the blue wings, and Elmer says the type of blue comes from the gem lapis lazuli.

In the phone booth, the rushing cars and the heat make Beverly hate everything. Elmer doesn’t think Beverly hates him or lapis lazuli. He boards the bus, and Beverly waves bye and screams, “Lapis lazuli.”

Chapter 21 Summary

Beverly returns to Iola, who waited for her with the wax lips on. When she didn’t come, Iola swallowed them. Beverly doesn’t want Iola to wait for her—she can’t tolerate the thought. Iola replies that things happen even if people don’t want to think about them.

Iola lets Beverly in the trailer, and Beverly tells her about Elmer. On the tiny kitchen table, she spots paper and an envelope with purple flowers. Iola bought her stationary, and Beverly writes Raymie a letter about Buddy and the words in the phone booth.

Chapter 22 Summary

Freddie compliments Beverly on her busing. She could be a waitress someday, but not at Mr. C’s—Freddie is the waitress at Mr. C’s. She reaffirms the importance of dreams and destiny. Jerome has “big” dreams—he’ll be rich.

After Beverly’s shift, she goes to Mr. Denby’s office, where the safe is open and full of $20s. She picks up a bundle of $20s, puts them back, then picks up a Christmas photo of Mr. Denby, his kids, and his wife. She puts the photo in her pocket. Mr. Denby promises to get her the paperwork and gives her $25 as a bonus. Doris hollers about “change” and “equity.” Beverly explains the meaning of “equity” to Freddie.

Outside, Jerome pesters Beverly, referring to Elmer as her boyfriend and “Elmer Fudd” (the Looney Tunes character). Elmer and Jerome were in the same algebra class. He copied Elmer’s algebra homework. Once, Elmer purposely got an F so Jerome would fail. Jerome also pulled down Elmer’s shorts and underwear during physical education (PE) class. Jerome also duct-taped him to a chair and left him in the janitor’s closet until, after half the school day went by, the janitor discovered him. Elmer trembles as tells Beverly about Jerome, and Beverly wants to destroy something or cry. Instead, she goes to the beach and contemplates the terrible world.

Chapters 16-22 Analysis

The cruel but kind world continues with Maureen and Jerome. Maureen isn’t nice and threatens to report Iola to her son. She tells Beverly, “[Y]ou is just some con artist trash” (94). Countering the cruelty, Iola tells Beverly that “[i]t will be fine. Everything will be fine” (96). To reinforce their bond, Iola makes Beverly a tuna melt, turning a tuna melt into a symbol of their connection. Jerome’s connection to Elmer is through cruelty, and his treatment of Elmer qualifies as physical and sexual assault. Yet Elmer is kind, and Beverly eventually admits they’re friends. As Beverly cares about Elmer, she wants to hurt Jerome. Instead, she goes to the beach and “stare[s] at the big indifferent ocean” (140). Not every cruelty has an actionable or tidy solution. Sometimes, the best a person can do is sit and reflect.

Mrs. Deely complicates the theme of Facing the Cruel but Kind World. Her cartoons appear cruel, and DiCamillo’s imagery communicates the ghastliness for the reader. A stick figure gets “consumed by fire,” and there are “a lot of snakes” (115). Elmer accuses Mrs. Deely of harassing people, but Mrs. Deely claims she isn’t, saying, “The truth has been delivered to me, and I’m delivering it to others” (113-14). Thus, kindness and cruelty can exist in the same person. Another way to look at it, people can try to scare people to push them in the right direction—or what they believe to be the honorable path. The cartoons disquiet Beverly, and she exclaims, “Good grief” (115). Yet Beverly doesn’t treat Mrs. Deely like Jerome or Maureen. Mrs. Deely isn’t irredeemable.

Through Elmer, Beverly becomes captivated by the Annunciation painting. Though The Song of the Lark is real, Annunciation is fictional. DiCamillo based the made-up painting on the numerous real-life paintings of the Annunciation, when, in the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she’ll be the mother of a son whom she’ll name Jesus. Thus, angels symbolize communication: Gabriel must tell Mary something important. Communication is multifaceted and can be elusive or silent. Thinking about the Annunciation painting, Beverly wishes the angel could “go and stand over Buddy’s grave, or float over it, or whatever it was that angels did” (111). The angel’s presence at Buddy’s grave would say something without words—it would indirectly let Buddy know that someone (or something) remains with him: He’s not alone.

The theme of Presence Versus Absence links to The Need for Connection in Chapter 21 when Iola waits for Beverly to come home. Ironically, Beverly’s presence creates an absence. Iola likes it when she’s around, so she feels the void when Beverly is not with her. They’re connected, so when they’re not together, the severing, however temporary, is palpable. Iola tells Beverly, “I’ve been waiting for you for I don’t know how long.” Beverly replies, “I can’t stand to think about you waiting for me” (123-24). Beverly continues to battle vulnerability and the consequences of forming meaningful bonds. She can’t tolerate Iola waiting for her because she cares for Iola, and she doesn’t want to cause Iola upset.

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