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Chapters 1-2

Chapter 1

• Castle Crenshaw is a medium-dark-skinned seventh-grader who lives with his mother in the poor neighborhood of an unnamed city.

• Castle spends a lot of time reading the Guinness Book of World Records, and dreams about setting a world record himself one day.

• Castle visits Mr. Charles every school day, to buy a bag of sunflower seeds.

• From Mr. Charles’ store, Castle goes to the bus stop—not to wait for the bus, but to watch the people in the gym on their Stairmasters.

• Castle recalls his father eating sunflower seeds more than three years ago, before his father “lost it” and took to drinking heavily (5).

• Castle remembers the night when he fell asleep with his head under his pillow to hide the sound of his parents fighting.

• In the middle of the night, his mother burst in and told him that they had to go...

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