Summary
Something new happens: Zinkoff gets an A on a major test in geography, the only kid in the class to ace the test. The other students applaud his achievement. On the playground, people call him The Zink, The Zee man, the genius. He does not realize that the loudest congratulators are coming not from him but from people mocking him for blundering into the only A he will ever get.
One day he notices no one smiles at him anymore because Field Day is coming. Zinkoff trains in advance of Field Day. The teacher assigns teams by lottery and Hobin is upset when he and Zinkoff end up on the same team again. Hobin tells Zinkoff to join a new team, but Zinkoff asks the other captains and they don’t want him.
Zinkoff is too embarrassed to admit to his parents what Hobin said. He decides to skip Field Day. He wanders the neighborhood, finding he is miserable everywhere. He winds up on Willow Street. The old woman who calls him “mailman” is standing outside in her bathrobe. She invites him into her house. She slowly makes him a peanut butter sandwich. He has never been so close to a very old person. He tells her about the Waiting Man, but she is not very interested. She gives him a sticker of a turkey that he puts on his shirt. It makes him so happy his eyes water. He opens up to her, telling her everything about his life and about school. He leaves just as school is letting out and the other kids are walking home.
The next day at school Zinkoff learns the Yellows won big without him. Medals hang from their necks. Hobin wears his medal every day until graduation. Zinkoff weeps on the stage as he considers leaving elementary school. He isn’t paying attention when his name is called. He jumps up to receive his diploma, tripping and falling on the stage. The audience laughs but he doesn’t blame them. As he receives the diploma, Polly shouts “Go Donald!” and he notices his family in the crowd. The summer passes lazily. He rides his bike and plays Monopoly, carrying the top-hat piece in his pocket. Before he knows it, summer is over.
Monroe Middle School is so big it’s scary. Eighth graders tower over him. He spots Andrew, who now goes by Drew. Drew is tall and unfriendly. He joins the band as a flutist. He signs up for the Library Helpers club. He joins the marching band. He plays pickup basket after school, always picked last despite his game face. Months pass and by autumn, Zinkoff becomes invisible to most people at school. He is less than a loser—he is nobody.
The first snow falls. Everyone at school is anticipating a Snow Day. While out throwing snowballs, Zinkoff notices police cars and emergency vehicles on the nine-hundred block of Willow. He overhears people speaking. Claudia, a little girl who lives on the block, is missing. He takes out the lucky clump of petrified bubblegum that Claudia gave him once. He leaves the snowball fight, hearing in his head: I will find her. I will find her.
Analysis
The theme of self-awareness resurfaces in chapter twenty when Zinkoff gets his first-ever decent grade. Having earned an A on a geography test, Zinkoff is delighted to find that people are celebrating him. Instead of calling him “Loser,” students invent new nicknames and shout their congratulations across the playground. However, Zinkoff’s lack of self-awareness and kind-hearted nature make it impossible for him to decipher the sarcasm behind the words of encouragement. Although it seems as if people are celebrating him, they in fact believe the good grade was a fluke and are feigning approval as another means of bullying Zinkoff for his difference.
The wave of good feeling only lasts until the next Field Day approaches. To avert the disaster of the previous year, Zinkoff trains to get better at racing. However, he finds himself on Hobin’s team again—a result Hobin cannot accept. In private, Hobin intimidates Zinkoff into joining another team, but when Zinkoff is rejected by the other team captains, he decides to simply skip Field Day and wander Willow Street. Although the shame of being rejected by Hobin stings, Zinkoff finds solace while speaking to the old lady who calls him “mailman.” In her kitchen, Zinkoff tells her all about his life, and she listens with fascination, giving Zinkoff the kindness he needs at the moment.
The specters of shame and difference continue to haunt Zinkoff on graduation day. Unlike other students, Zinkoff is not recognized with any awards. While going to collect his diploma, Zinkoff trips on the stage. Luckily Mr. Yalowitz and his family are in the crowd to shout approvingly as he crosses the stage. With their kindness, Zinkoff is not as isolated and invisible.
In middle school Zinkoff takes part in every club he can, applying himself with the same enthusiasm as he did in elementary school. However, he finds that he is a nobody in middle school. While previously he had been cruelly assigned the identity of “Loser,” he now finds that no one cares about him enough even to make fun of him. It is rejection on a level Zinkoff has not encountered before: a rejection that strips him of even having the delusion that he is special.
But despite his feelings of worthlessness and invisibility, Zinkoff is excited when the first snow of winter falls. He is giddy to get outside and throw snowballs and go sledding with the other kids in the neighborhood. However, his fun is compromised when he realizes that Claudia, a little girl he knows from Willow Street, is missing. Zinkoff drops what he is doing and goes searching for her on his own, determined to recover her and bring her home.
