72 pages 2 hours read

O.T. Nelson

The Girl Who Owned a City

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1975

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.

Part 1, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

Lisa wakes up just before dawn the next morning; when she goes outside, she discovers that someone has let the air out of the car’s tires. At first she despairs, but Todd gets a tire pump from the garage, and the two refill the tires.

After breakfast, as a reward for his logical thinking, Lisa does the dishes while Todd collects supplies from around the house. They then get to work setting up a makeshift alarm system using large, loud items and thin string. Lisa also places a sign outside labeling the house as private property. Once that’s finished, Lisa writes invitations to a meeting to discuss the neighborhood militia.

She delivers the first to Julie, who is upstairs, unwell. Lisa tells her that she should take vitamins, pointing out that she probably isn’t eating right without her parents. However, it turns out that Julie and her siblings aren’t eating at all because their brother Charlie is unable to find food. Moreover, in their desperation, Charlie accepted an invite to join the nearby Chidester Street Gang, and it was he and the gang who robbed Lisa and Todd the day before.