46 pages • 1 hour read
Jo Watson HacklSmack Dab in the Middle of Maybe
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A 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 1-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “February Firehouse Jubilee Fish Fry”
Cricket is in Thelma’s Cash ’n’ Carry with her Aunt Belinda and cousins. She is thinking about her parents: her father, who is dead, and her mother, who is gone. Aunt Belinda is in a hurry to get everything she needs to prepare for the February Firehouse Jubilee Fish Fry. She gets a phone call, but when Cricket asks who it was, she dodges the question.
Cricket finds a cricket bug in the store. She tries to release it outside, but one of her cousins blocks her; it seems like he wants to kill the cricket. Cricket goes to the bathroom to try and let the cricket out a window. While she tries to get the energetic cricket out the window, she decides to name it Charlene, which is her mother’s middle name. After a struggle in which she fails to release Charlene outside, she returns to the store. She finds the store empty and dark. Cricket has been left behind.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Fresh Meat”
Aunt Belinda’s car is gone. Cricket finds a note on the ground that Aunt Belinda wrote while she was on the phone. It says “GAG–Wed. 3:30, Cricket pack” (22). GAG is a nickname for Cricket’s relative, Great-Aunt Genevieve, whom Cricket dislikes.
