Attack Of The Black Rectangles

Grandad chases Mike around town, and eventually the police stop the car. Mike gets out and runs away, but no one goes after him. Grandad drives everyone home in the car, and Mac sees that his baseball gear is still in there. He walks Marci home, and she suggests they just focus on the school board meeting. He tells her that he’s worried that the board will not make the right decision, and Marci says they’ll just keep fighting. He tells her that he emailed Jane Yolen and she wrote him back and encouraged him to keep standing up for his beliefs. 

Mac appreciates Marci giving him grace for not telling her and Denis about writing to Jane Yolen, and she gives him a comforting hug before going inside. She tells him that she’s sorry about the way things are with his dad and that his dad is missing out on getting to know the coolest kid she knows.

When Mac gets home, he goes to the garage to work on his bike and finds his dad there. His dad is defensive, saying that he has to stick up for himself, but Mac doesn’t understand who he has to stick up for himself against. His dad accuses Mac of listening to his grandad, but Mac says that his grandad has taught him valuable things and that he doesn’t lie, even when the truth makes him look bad. 

Mac asks his dad what he’s so ashamed of, just like his grandad had asked him the previous weekend. His dad is not receptive, so Mac continues talking. He tells him that for a while, he didn’t like himself and was scared to have relationships because of Mike. He also says he was embarrassed about his dad breaking his mom’s mug and leaving them. His dad tries to stop him, but Mac continues to tell him how angry he’s been. Grandad comes into the garage, and Mike tells Mac that he’s leaving and says he’ll “be in touch about the camping trip and stuff” to cover up what their conversation was really about (231). They continue working on Mac’s bike; Grandad tells Mac that he doesn’t know what to say or how to explain Mike’s behavior, but he’ll keep trying to help him. 

More snippets from letters to the editor are printed. Some are about the town’s canceling of Halloween, one is about the rule against pizza delivery, one is in support of Mac and his friends’ protest of censorship, and the last is a critique of the school’s holiday show containing religious music. The community has started to question other rules in the town.

Mac explains that Halloween is canceled in their town because a few years ago, someone walked around with a mask and rubber knife and scared small children and parents. On Halloween day, Marci, Mac, and Denis prepare for the next school board meeting. Ms. Sett is going around to each literature group to talk about what they thought about their books. She asks Hoa to get the grocery bag filled with the Halloween treats she got for the class—sugar-free fruit snacks—out of a closet, but Hoa also finds copies of other books that have words and phrases blacked out. She calls Mac over and shows him. He takes some of the books and hides them in the waistband of his jeans.

When Ms. Sett comes to their group to ask them what they thought about The Devil’s Arithmetic, Aaron surprises everyone by saying, completely seriously, that the detail about the girls covering their breasts in the concentration camp was a powerful detail. Though he isn’t being silly or immature, Ms. Sett still sends him out of the room.

Even though Ms. Sett was nice to Mac when Aaron gave him a hard time about his dad, Mac supports Aaron for what he did. Ms. Sett tells Mac to go out into the hallway to explain what is going on, and Marci and Denis follow. None of them will talk to Ms. Sett, so she tells them to go to the office. Instead, they make posters that say things like “Breast is Just a Word,” “Silent Protest in Progress,” and “Free Aaron James!” (240). The three of them sit silently in the hallway holding their signs so that everyone passing them can see. They refuse to move or talk to the assistant principal and other teachers who approach them. Some kids join them, and they wait until all of the other students have left the building before leaving.

When he finally does get home, Mac’s grandad tells him that the school called his mom. He’s worried that he’ll be suspended and also worried about the school board meeting coming up. His grandad gives him a strand of beads that he made for him to use while meditating, saying they will give him confidence. Mac realizes that even though Mike is his dad, his grandad is really his father because of the way that he supports, encourages, and teaches him important things about life.

The next school board meeting is much more crowded than the first one Mac attended. He, Marci, and Denis have to sit on the floor; when his grandad arrives, he sits down on the floor with them. Marci’s and Aaron’s fathers speak. Mac’s mom tells the crowd that she works with dying people every day and one of them told her that “you regret all the things you could have learned and didn’t” (247). She believes that people who engage in and support censorship have a lot to learn from kids like Mac and his friends.

Just when the school board members try to end the discussion, an older woman comes up and starts speaking. She introduces herself as Jane Yolen. It takes some time before the crowd realizes that she is the author of The Devil’s Arithmetic, but Mac and his friends know who she is immediately. She says she’s written many books and has seen them shredded, burned, and torn out of children’s hands, but she urges the adults to tell the truth to children and to learn from the children fighting against censorship. When Ms. Yolen finishes speaking, Hoa and Aaron begin reading from the books that Hoa found in Ms. Sett’s closet. Hoa reads until she gets to a censored line, and Aaron yells, “BLACK RECTANGLE!” Soon, the rest of the crowd joins in.

After the meeting, Mac rushes out to thank Ms. Yolen for coming. She tells him to keep fighting for what he believes in and keep being himself. Marci, Denis, and Aaron are in awe of seeing the author of their book in real life. After the meeting, Mac achieves a sense of calm. He realizes that everything will be alright.

Mac summarizes what happens following the school board meeting. The board meets more frequently, and more people attend. Townspeople are challenging some of the rules in the town, and it’s actually making a difference. Mac is proud to see that his fight against censorship has inspired his community to become more engaged citizens. He and Marci decide to go back to being just friends for a while since they’re still only 11. Mac feels secure in his friendships with her and Denis and is getting better at expressing emotions without shame. His mother is not in contact with his father, but occasionally his grandad updates his father about Mac. Mike has started seeing a therapist.

Overall, Mac has a positive outlook on the future. He knows that his mom and Grandad are there for him, and he is looking forward to starting middle school with his two best friends. His experiences over the last few months have reinforced his belief that the truth is the most important thing.