Chapter 1 Summary

A new boy joins the sixth grade class. He is tall and skinny, has long curly hair way down his back and his skin is very pale, matching the snow outside. Trevor greets the boy with a nasty remark, his attempt to cover it with a cough not successful. Ms. Johnson warns Trevor to behave. The new boy just seems to ignore Trevor as he taps out a silent tune with a pencil on his desk. The narrator, Frannie, looks at her notebook, recalling the day before when Ms. Johnson read a poem. Her favorite line, "Hope is the thing with feathers," is written down in her notebook. Mama had told Frannie that Ms. Johnson was trying to teach the children to look toward the future. Her brother Sean signed that it was a metaphor.

The new boy is assigned a seat in...