64 pages 2 hours read

Mary Downing Hahn

Closed for the Season

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

Logan arrives home and sees Johnny O’Neil mowing their lawn. Logan revels in the smells and sounds of summer before going to show his mother the photocopy of the newspaper article. He tells her all about Nina Stevens and they both head inside to show Logan’s dad. Mr. Forbes is busy talking to a contractor about a new roof. He does not believe they should pursue a complaint against the realtor for their lack of transparency.

The next morning, Arthur arrives as Logan is eating breakfast. Nina Stevens will be by both of their homes today to interview their guardians. Nina soon arrives to chat with Mrs. Jenkins and the boys follow them into the house. Logan ogles Mrs. Jenkins’s decorations because the house is filled with miniature figures and paintings of clowns. During the interview, Mrs. Jenkins fervently supports Mrs. Donaldson’s innocence while blaming Silas Phelps for her murder. According to Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Donaldson and Silas had a feud due to his mistreatment of her daughter Violet. Violet frequently brought her children to her mother’s home to escape Silas’s wrath. When the police questioned Silas about his whereabouts during the murder, Violet corroborated his alibi.