Summer Ball

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007

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.

Download PDF

Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary

In Chapter 3, Danny faces his crush, Tess Hewitt, before he leaves for camp. Will and Ty give the two some privacy, and Tess and Danny sit down to talk. Danny explains Tess’s appeal, stating, Tess “could walk around and be better looking than any girl in Middletown and still hang with the guys like a champ” (21). Normally good friends with an easy rapport between them, Danny feels dwarfed by his concerns about camp. Plagued by his own insecurities, Danny provokes a fight with her. Tess starts to crybut regains her composure. She leaves Danny to join Scott on the tennis courts. Danny, rejoined by Will and Ty, plays basketball. He takes a shot and Will, normally the inferior player, blocks Danny’s shot, leaving Danny with an even greater sense of dread about basketball camp.

Chapter 4 Summary

On the way to Right Way basketball camp, Danny, Will, and Ty meet Tarik Meminger, another tall player from the Bronx. Tarik possesses a friendly, street-smart personality the boys, especially Will, immediately warm up to. By the time the four arrive at camp, they form a fast friendship. En route, the boys also meet Nick Pinto, a Division-II college basketball player who is on the shorter side, like Danny. Nick explains to the boys, “‘D-2 is Division II. I could have gone to a couple Division-I schools, but I didn’t want to spend four years of college sitting next to the team manager’” (30). Nick also compliments Danny on his travel team’s victory, noting Danny’s skill in particular.

Right Way makes a positive initial impression on Danny as he surveys the grounds. He notes, “The best part was that there seemed to be basketball courts everywhere” (32). The dorms are named after famous basketball arenas. While the camp director, Jeff LeBow, sorts the boys into their bunks, Danny’s initial positivity wanes: LeBow never calls Danny’s name, even after Will and Ty receive their housing. According to Danny, his father arranged for the boys to bunk together, but LeBow puts Danny in a junior dorm with another short player, Zach Fox.

Checking out the grounds, Danny sees a group of campers playing basketball. The boys tower high over Danny: “the bigger ones were bigger than Ty, bigger than Tarik. They looked like men” (39). Among the group, Danny sees an old rival, Rasheed Hill, a Baltimore player Danny and his team defeated in the travel team championship. Hill, deft as ever on the court, pauses to make a jab at Danny about drawing a foul in the championship game. Rasheed follows up with a dazzling court maneuver. Feeling deflated, Danny sarcastically remarks to himself, “Welcome to Wrong Way” (41).

Chapters 3-4 Analysis

Danny departs Middletown on a bad note. In a classic coming-of-age-story trope, Danny struggles between being the good kid and giving into his annoyance about losing control over his life. When Tess stands, instead of rushing up to apologize, Danny remains seated, sure that standing next to her would be more humiliating. He feels inferior and this shows, first with his fight with Tess and later, as he travels to Right Way. He even partially sees Tarik, one of the friendliest characters, as a threat when he notices Tarik’s size.

Danny’s size, or lack thereof, appears at the forefront of nearly every one of Danny’s thoughts. Other events do not provide any relief. First, on the bus trip to Right Way, their driver, Nick Pinto, is another short basketball player; Nick also turns out to be Danny’s bunk counselor. In addition, if Danny feels insignificant before camp, when the camp forgets Danny’s name and fails to house him with his two best friends, Danny feels even smaller. The camp places a kid sensitive about his height into the junior dorms. Separated from his friends, Danny tells Nick, “when I’ve got Will and Ty, I kind of do feel like I have my team with me” (38). Danny loses this sense of security when his friends go off to another dorm. Then, as if he needs another reminder, Danny watches an amazing player on the courts. Danny next recognizes Rasheed Hill, from the team Danny defeats in the travel championships. Rasheed, towering over him, with lightning speed and stellar skills to match, makes Danny feel even smaller.