Summary

Chapter 8 is titled “Oookabooka Land,” and it winds up on Southview Avenue. Cynthia Sower's nickname is Say-So, and she is known as a comedian. Each day, Mrs. Stevens gives Cynthia five minutes at the end of class and Cynthia delivers a monologue. The five minutes is a compromise in which Cynthia agrees not to “derail” the entire class period. She is focused on the comedy and wears her hair in “two plaits sprouting from either side of her head – a hairstyle she loved for its comedic effect” (138). On this day, Cynthia talks at length about the man who invented the first shirt. He called it the “arm-belly-chest cloth” but people complained because the name was too long. He had his mouth full one day when someone was pressing him to name his invention and he said “Shirt, I don't know” (140). Mrs. Stevens is about...