57 pages • 1 hour read
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
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Chapters 30-38Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 30 Summary
At recess, Bradley asks Mrs. Ebbel if he can use the hall pass, and, sensing something different about him, she lets him, though she warns him that if he misbehaves, she’ll never permit a hall pass again. Bradley says thank you, and Mrs. Ebbel says you’re welcome, not to Bradley but to herself.
In Carla’s office, Bradley admits he ripped up his math homework and doesn’t know why. Carla isn’t mad. What matters is he did his homework. Bradley vows to continue to do his homework.
There’s a book report for next week, but Mrs. Wilcott won’t let him take out a book, so Carla gives him a book—a novel, My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant, by Uriah C. Lasso. In the book’s first sentence, the unnamed narrator announces his hatred of tomato juice, though his Aunt Ruth gives it to him every morning. The unnamed narrator lives with his quirky aunt and Uncle Boris because his parents are in jail for allegedly stealing an elephant. The narrator thinks the elephant ran away from its abusive master.
Chapter 31 Summary
At home, Bartholomew mocks Bradley for reading, but Ronnie encourages him. In the book, the narrator says his Uncle Boris and Aunt Ruth met after his parents went to jail. They came to look after him, and they fell in love. Uncle Boris is his mom’s brother, and Aunt Ruth is his dad’s sister. The narrator feels cheated out of an aunt and uncle.
Janet enters Bradley’s room and applauds him for reading. She says she received a letter from the Concerned Parents Organization—they’re concerned about Carla, so they’re holding a meeting about her. Before Bradley can answer, Claudia jumps in, saying Bradley doesn’t have any complaints because he’s in love with Carla, and that’s why he’s reading the book. His sister asks their mom if she’d let Bradley marry Carla. His mom replies that Carla seems nice. Bradley says he has no complaints, so his mom has no reason to attend the meeting.
With Claudia and his mom gone, Bradley admits to Ronnie that he loves Carla. Ronnie says there’s nothing wrong with that. Claudia reappears and says if the Concerned Parents Organization learned Carla kissed him, she’d lose her job.
Chapter 32 Summary
Bradley pays attention to Mrs. Ebbel’s arithmetic lesson and almost raises his hand to give the same answer another student gave—the right answer. During recess, he reads Lasso’s novel in the library, and Mrs. Wilcott congratulates him. Later, Mrs. Ebbel lets him have the hall pass. Bradley attributes the series of hopeful events to Carla’s book.
He wants to have lunch with Carla, but she has to see the principal, so he eats by himself on the steps of the auditorium. He sees Colleen and says hi, but Colleen doesn’t say hi back. He doesn’t read while eating—he doesn’t want to get food in the book.
Done eating, he returns to the book. The narrator’s peculiar aunt and uncle put purple wallpaper with yellow polka dots all over the garage. The narrator can’t wait for his parents to return, and their trial occurs next week.
Jeff and his friends interrupt Bradley. They call him names, make fun of him for reading, and try to take his book. Jeff’s friends pressure him to hit Bradley, but Bradley says hi, and Jeff says hi. Instead of a fight, Jeff and his friends invite him to play basketball—now, the teams will be even.
Chapter 33 Summary
Bradley is bad at basketball. He dribbles with both hands, passes the ball to the players on the opposite team, and says thank you when someone passes him the ball. Bradley never shoots, but his team is losing 28 to 6, and Jeff tells him to shoot, so he does and makes it. Jeff and the other boys congratulate him. Bradley attributes his success in basketball to Carla’s book.
Jeff admits he got his black eye from Melinda, and both boys agree: Melinda is strong. Suddenly, Bradley remembers he left his book on the basketball court. While he runs to get it, Jeff goes into the boys’ bathroom to wash his face. Colleen enters the boys’ bathroom and screams.
Chapter 34 Summary
Jeff visits Carla, who’s speaking to an embarrassed Colleen. Carla asks Jeff what’s going on, and Colleen tells Jeff not to say anything, but Jeff tells Carla that Colleen was in the boys’ bathroom. Colleen said it was an accident, but Carla doesn’t believe in accidents. The truth is Colleen followed Jeff into the bathroom.
Colleen apologizes for saying hi to him, but she was confused because he always said hi back. Jeff says he can’t help it. Carla says if a monster says hi to someone, they should say hi back.
Carla brings up the critical rule for Zen Buddhism: When someone says hi, say hi back. She cites a quote from the short novel Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955) by the 20th-century American writer and Zen Buddhist practitioner J. D. Salinger. Colleen says Jeff could be a Zen monk, and Carla says Colleen can be a Zen monk too.
Colleen invites Jeff to her birthday party, and Colleen promises to invite another boy for him.
Chapter 35 Summary
Before dinner, Bradley’s dad teaches him how to dribble. Before recess the next day, Bradley neatly puts away his school things. Summoning the spirit of a Zen monk, Colleen approaches him and invites him to her birthday party on Sunday. Excited, Bradley says he’ll be there. He runs to the basketball court but forgets what his dad taught him about dribbling.
Melinda asks Colleen if Bradley’s coming. Colleen nods, and Lori sticks out her tongue and screams. Melinda says it’ll be fun because Bradley’s different now. Colleen says Melinda can’t come anymore because she beat up Jeff and Bradley. Melinda retorts that they started it. Besides, Melinda is Colleen’s best friend. Colleen relents: Melinda can come, but she better not start a fight. Lori joins the conversation adding that she thought she was Colleen’s best friend.
At night, Bradley reads to Ronnie and Bartholomew from My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant. The narrator meets with his parents’ lawyer, who tells him to say that he loves peanuts. Bradley’s dad interrupts. It’s past his bedtime, but since he’s reading, he can stay up. His dad asks about the dribbling, and Bradley says he forgot. His dad promises they can practice harder on the weekend. Back to the book: The lawyer tells the narrator to tell the police that he can eat 50,000 peanuts a day.
Chapter 36 Summary
Bradley asks Carla what’s new in her life. Carla says she got a new shower curtain because her old one was too dirty. Bradley blurts that Colleen invited him to her birthday party. He also tells Carla about how he plays basketball with Jeff’s friends. He attributes his turn around to Carla and her “magic book.”
Suddenly, Bradley is in tears. He hasn’t been to a birthday party since third grade, and they made him go home because he sat on the cake when he didn’t have a chair for musical chairs. Bradley thinks about everything that might go wrong at Colleen’s birthday party. Carla thinks Bradley is overwhelmed. She says he thinks he’s Cinderella but assures him he won’t turn into a pumpkin. His friends are real. The book isn’t magic: The power comes from within Bradley.
Bradley and Carla discuss gift ideas. Carla says a present should come from the heart. Bradley suggests a shower curtain. Carla says yes, as long as the shower curtain comes from the heart.
Chapter 37 Summary
At the meeting between Carla and the Concerned Parents Organization, the parents say their kids need discipline, not counseling. A mom says Carla told her son it’s ok to fail. The school should focus on fundamental skills: math, writing, and reading. If they fired the counselor, they’d have enough money to put a computer in every classroom.
Colleen’s mom said her daughter spoke to Carla without their permission. Carla says it was an emergency and won’t tell Colleen’s mom details. If Colleen wants her mom to know, Colleen can tell her. Colleen’s mom claims Carla made her daughter want to switch from Catholicism to Zen Buddhism.
Another mom doesn’t understand the point of counselors. Carla says she talks to the kids and helps them learn to think independently. The mom says school is supposed to teach kids what to think. Carla teaches them how to think, not what to think.
A dad asks Carla what she’d do if a boy kept biting his teacher. Carla says she’d try to discover why he’s biting her. The dad asks what if the boy keeps biting the teacher, and he bites her on the butt. Carla says the meeting is becoming absurd.
Chapter 38 Summary
Bradley writes his book report on My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant. He calls the book “very funny” and “crazy.” He realizes the reader never knows the name of the kid narrator—the reader doesn’t even know their gender. The lawyer coaches the kid to cry in court, but they laugh instead, and the kid’s parents are innocent.
Carla reads the book report and says it’s wonderful. She wants Bradley to keep the book. Bradley offers his book report as a gift, but Carla wants him to give it to Mrs. Ebbel.
Tomorrow is Carla’s last day at Red Hill School. She’s going to teach kindergarten at Willow Bend School. Bradley is deeply upset. He doesn’t want Carla to go. She tricked him, and he hates her. He rips his book report, throws the book at her, and then runs into the boys’ bathroom. Carla follows and tells him everything won’t go bad for him once she’s gone. He’s not Cinderella, and she’s not Prince Charming. If he wants, he can help her move things out of her office Saturday. Afterward, they can have lunch.
Chapters 30-38 Analysis
Though turning in homework remains a hurdle, Bradley is changing, and even Mrs. Ebbel senses it. She gives Bradley a hall pass because “something about the way he asked” (117) made her realize he’d be good. Carla acknowledges Bradley’s progress. She tells him, “You did your homework, that’s the important thing” (118). She gives him the book, My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant, so he can do more homework and write a book report. Mrs. Ebbel’s openness to a well-behaved Bradley and Carla’s gift of the book help Bradley in Confronting Fears and Insecurities. He’s treading in new waters, so small moments of support are key to Bradley’s progress, even though he slips up along the way.
The book from Carla is fun and zany like There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. The book puts Bradley in the position of the reader. The reader is reading a book about Bradley, and Bradley reads a book about a character whose parents get accused of stealing an elephant. The book allows Sachar to subvert norms. Bradley realizes someone doesn’t need a name or gender to be relatable. Bradley doesn’t know the name or gender of the book’s narrator, yet still enjoys the book.
In this section, Bradley’s Personal Transformation and Growth continue, and reading symbolizes Bradley’s anti-monster progress: It represents good. His mom, dad, and the librarian applaud him. Yet Bartholomew mocks him—not all the animals are always supportive, though Ronnie encourages him. With the book, Bradley accelerates his march toward goodness and away from being a monster. Jeff and his friends are about to beat him up. Yet Jeff and Bradley exchange hello’s—a symbol of humanity— and Jeff and his friends invite him to play basketball. Bradley says, “[I]t was all because of [Carla’s] magic book” (136). However, it wasn’t the book: Bradley’s hello invites Jeff’s hello, deescalating the tense situation and leading to an invitation for Bradley to play basketball. Bradley’s acceptance into the group foregrounds the theme of Friendship and Acceptance, which is also reflected in the girls’ group re-evaluating Bradley and recognizing that he’s changed.
Carla’s Salinger reference provides another literary context: the work of Salinger. In Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Buddy Glass, a soldier in his twenties, attends his brother’s wedding. Lots of surprises happen, just as many unexpected things beset Bradley. In both stories, norms are far from stable.
Concerning the symbolism behind saying hi, Buddy says, “In certain Zen monasteries, it’s a cardinal rule, if not the only serious enforced discipline, that when one monk calls out ‘Hi!’ to another monk, the latter monk must call back ‘Hi!’ without thinking” (Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour—An Introduction. Little, Brown and Company, 2014, pp. 37-38). The monks must acknowledge that they’re a part of the same community, and the main characters at Red Hill School feel compelled to say hi to one another because they’re members of the same community.
Aside from Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Salinger’s work tends to focus on singular children, juxtaposing their precocious earnestness with the questionable motives of adults. Bradley is quite distinctive, and Sachar frequently casts grownups in a negative light.
Sachar juxtaposes Bradley’s success with Carla’s hardship. Sachar uses imagery and dialogue to portray the contentious meeting between the counselor and the Concerned Parents Organization. The parents’ emphasis on basic skills links to contemporary debates about the purpose of schools and what kids should be learning in them. The dad’s hypothetical butt-biting child makes him and the adults appear nonsensical. Carla admits, “This is getting ridiculous” (147).
Yet the absurdity has serious consequences. After the meeting, Carla transfers to another school. Her departure threatens Bradley, leaving him vulnerable, fearful, and insecure. Bradley returns to his monster persona. He declares his hatred for Carla and rips up his book report. Carla tells Bradley that he, not her or her book, is responsible for his transformation. Scrambling gender norms, she tells him, “You’re not Cinderella, and I’m not Prince Charming” (154). She further destabilizes gender norms by following him into the boys’ bathroom. The invitation to help her move foreshadows a dramatic event.
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By Louis Sachar
