Jake Drake, Know-It-All
41 pages • 1-hour read
Andrew ClementsJake Drake, Know-It-All
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Catch”
Jake Drake is a 10-year-old fourth grader at Despres Elementary School and is the narrator of the story. He loves computers. He recalls his family’s first computer, a Mac Classic, and the games that he played on it. As time passed and computers became more sophisticated, he enjoyed the games more and more. He and his best friend, Phil Willis (Willie), would play computer games as much as they were allowed to. When the Internet became available, Jake was amazed at everything his family’s computer could now do. Jake notes that he wants the reader to understand how much he loves computers because this helps explain his actions in the story he is about to tell.
Because Jake was good with computers, he was allowed to use his classroom’s computer as early as kindergarten, and he was often called upon to teach other students how to use it. Two students resisted letting Jake teach them anything: Marsha McCall and Kevin Young. Jake explains that Marsha and Kevin are “know-it-alls” and always want to seem like they are the smartest and most skillful students in every subject area. In third grade, when Jake’s story takes place, Marsha and Kevin are both in Mrs. Snavin’s class with Jake. The owner of a local computer store comes to the school to announce that he has “a present to give [Jake]…but there [is] one small catch” (7): Jake has to do something first—something that might turn Jake into a know-it-all like Kevin and Marsha.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Big News”
On a Tuesday right before Jake’s school’s winter break, there is an assembly for the third, fourth, and fifth grades. On stage with Mrs. Karp, the school principal, is a man Jake has never seen before. The man turns out to be Lenny Cordo, the manager of a local computer store. His store, Wonky’s Super Computer Store, will be sponsoring Despres Elementary School’s first ever science fair. The students are only mildly interested until he adds that there will be a grand prize for the top science fair entries for each of the three grades. When he explains that Wonky’s will give the winners for third, fourth, and fifth grades their own Hyper-Cross-Functional Bluntium Twelve computers, the students clap and cheer. Jake is very excited: This exact, top-of-the-line computer is the one he has been trying to get his parents to buy for him. It has “the coolest games and the best connections” and is “the computer of [his] dreams” (14). Jake notices that Kevin and Marsha, unlike the other children, are not yelling and clapping. They are thinking. He realizes that they intend to win the science fair and “[his] computer” (15). He knows that it is likely that most of the third graders are also going to try to win the computer, but he decides that Marsha and Kevin are his only real competition.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Rules”
Back in their classroom, Mrs. Snavin gives the students more information about the science fair. Participation is completely voluntary. Students who want to participate will need to get a permission slip signed by their parents or guardians. She hands out a rule booklet, noting that on page three, students can find information about what kinds of projects are allowed. At first, Jake decides that he will read the booklet when he gets home, but then he sees that Marsha and Kevin are already reading intently and marking up their booklets with notes. He takes out his red pen and begins doing the same. Mrs. Snavin tells the students that they can work alone or with a partner but that if a pair of students win together, the prize will still only be one computer. Jake decides that in that case, he will work alone because he has no intention of sharing the computer. Marsha asks Mrs. Snavin how she can get started with her science fair project right away if she is required to get her project approved. Mrs. Snavin reminds everyone that they need to talk to their parents about the science fair, get the permission slip signed, and ask for parental input about what kind of project to pursue.
Pete Morris, who loves science, asks Mrs. Snavin whether it is okay for his science fair project to be related to one of his hobbies. He is specifically interested in doing a project about insects, which he studies for fun. Mrs. Snavin assures him that this is fine. She tells the class to take out their silent reading books and put away their science fair information. Jake secretly continues reading his science fair booklet, as do Kevin and Marsha. He acknowledges that he makes this choice because he now wants “to be the first. And the best” and win the science fair by becoming “know-it-all number one” (22).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Hunters”
Jake tries to covertly get a library pass from Mrs. Snavin to use during recess; Marsha overhears, and she asks for one, too. Kevin follows suit. When Jake arrives in the library, it is filled with kids researching for the science fair. Pete is not there, however; Jake notices through a window that Pete is outside, studying a bush near the fence. Jake’s best friend, Willie, comes over and shares his excitement about the science fair and its prize. He tries to chat about potential projects, but Jake cuts him short, saying that he has to get to work. Willie asks whether Jake wants to work together and share the prize, cheerfully asserting that this would “be great!” (25). Jake, who has no interest in sharing the prize, refuses to be partners. Willie tells Jake that if he wins on his own, he will still share the computer; Jake does not return the sentiment. He understands that he is not being very nice to Willie, but he excuses his behavior by saying that he does not have “time to be nice” right now (26).
Jake uses a computer to look up ideas for science fair projects. He is initially excited by the thousands of ideas that his search returns, but he quickly realizes that this is too many ideas to comb through. He does not need thousands of ideas—he just needs the one that is right for him. Kevin comes to stand behind Jake, trying to see what he is researching. Jake tells him to go away, and Kevin comments that it is against the competition rules to copy online projects. Marsha comes over and seconds Kevin’s remarks. Jake shoots back that he is smarter than that and knows not to cheat. He accuses them of snooping and trying to copy ideas from him. Later, he is pleased when he realizes that Kevin and Marsha see him as a threat.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
In the first section of the narrative, Jake introduces himself and draws a clear distinction between himself and students like Marsha and Kevin. Jake wants to be seen as a nice person with good values: He tells the reader about his love of computers because “if [he doesn’t], then the rest of the story makes [him] look like a real jerk,” and he wants the reader to know that he is “not a jerk, not most of the time” (2). Jake is clearly put off by how eager Kevin and Marsha are to excel in school and by the way this causes them to disregard the feelings of others. They will not let him help them in his specialty subject—computers—and in second grade, Mrs. Brattle had to remind them that “the other students in this class […] ha[d] good ideas, too” (6). He calls Kevin and Marsha “know-it-alls” and makes fun of the way their hands are always in the air (6), begging to be called on by their teachers. He says that “there’s nothing worse than a know-it-all” (3), introducing the text’s theme of The Importance of Staying Humble. When Kevin and Marsha are asking questions in the classroom after the assembly and Mrs. Snavin reassures them that there is plenty of time to work on their science fair projects, Jake points out that people like Marsha and Kevin “always have to be first” and “always worry” (21).
The distinction between his own behavior and Kevin and Marsha’s is important to Jake, but this distinction becomes increasingly blurred as the story progresses. Jake’s behavior is almost immediately impacted by his desire to win the computer. His first instinct when he sees the 10-page rule booklet is to wait and read it when he gets home—but then he sees Kevin and Marsha pouring over their booklets and rethinks his plan. Instead of reading his book during silent reading time as he normally would, he covertly continues reading the science fair booklet, just as he sees Marsha and Kevin doing. He concludes Chapter 3 by admitting that, suddenly, he also “[wants] to be the first. And the best” (22). This makes it clear that Jake’s values are wavering and that he is becoming like the two people whose behavior he most dislikes. These changes in Jake introduce the story’s thematic arguments about The Value of Personal Integrity and suggest that although, at this moment, Jake may believe that his central conflict is how to win the fancy new computer, his real conflict is how to preserve his own values in the face of temptation.
These changes in Jake’s thinking and behavior, ironically, result from one of his core characteristics—his love for computers. The Hyper-Cross-Functional Bluntium Twelve computer is a lure that—at this point in the story—Jake cannot resist. In Chapter 1, Jake’s initial description of the computer, as a present that Lenny Cordo wants to give Jake, conveys that Jake thinks of the computer as specially destined for him. In the next chapter, he is upset when he realizes that Marsha and Kevin are already planning how to win the science fair and take the computer that he already sees as his property. When Mrs. Snavin tells the class that if two students working together win the science fair, they will have to share the computer, Jake immediately decides to work alone—because “[n]o way [is he] going to split [his] new computer with anybody else” (20). He makes it clear how true this is in Chapter 4. Not only does he refuse to work with his best friend, Willie, but when Willie assures Jake that he would share the computer with him, Jake—instead of offering him the same deal in return—also thinks to himself, “Forget about it, Willie, That grand prize is mine” (26). This exchange introduces the story’s theme of The Importance of Loyalty to Friends and shows that, tempted by a top-of-the-line computer, Jake is in danger of forgetting just how important this loyalty is.
Jake also seems to be forgetting about the idea of Learning as Its Own Reward. He has made it clear how much he dislikes the way Kevin and Marsha treat school as a competition and how motivated they are by the status of being number one. This shows that, ordinarily, Jake sees getting focused on additional rewards—grades, praise, and so on—as being a mistake. The character who most exemplifies how rewarding learning for its own sake can be is Pete. Pete asks Mrs. Snavin whether his science fair project can be based on one of his hobbies. He then lists a large number of scientific subjects that he pursues for fun. Jake is so caught up in his perceived competition with the know-it-alls, however, that he does not even consider that Pete might be the real threat. When he sees Pete outside the library, peering at a bush, he does not stop to wonder if this is related to the science fair—because this is typical Pete behavior since science is his hobby. Ironically, this moment foreshadows the novel’s conclusion in which Pete wins the science fair with a project that he has been pursuing for months—because for Pete, learning about science is a reward in and of itself.
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