Summary

Chapter 10 is titled “The Broom Dog” and is set on the corner of Portal Avenue. The chapter opens with a lengthy description of a school bus, which can be a limousine, a classroom, an office, a court, a science lab, a food court, a concert hall, and a war zone. The description them morphs into all the things that happen on a bus, including chants about those who like each other, rude comments about a person's breath, and notes being passed. Additional descriptions compare a school bus to a reclining chair, a fast food joint, a talent show, a boxing ring, and a “masterpiece that everyone pretends to understand” (175). Canton Post knows the school bus can also be “a cannonball. A thing that almost destroyed him. Almost made him motherless” (175).

Canton's mother, Ms. Post, is the crossing guard outside Latimer Middle School. Canton had...