Part 2: Chapters 17-20 Summary

Part Two, The Laughing Tiger, chapter seventeen, begins with Johnny teaching Chuck Chatsworth how to read. Chuck is a bright kid with a passion for sports who also has a reading phobia. Chuck is a seventeen-year-old student who is funny and charming and also afraid of displeasing his successful father. Chuck is under a great deal of pressure to apply to colleges but his lack of reading ability means that Chuck cannot successfully take the required SATs.

The job with the Chatsworths is perfect for Johnny since it meant moving to New Hampshire. Johnny is anonymous in New Hampshire. In addition to teaching Chuck, Johnny takes a job in a local diner.

Chuck's reading greatly improves but the boy has little to no retention on the material he just read. The father suspects several different problems, but Johnny claims...