Baseball Cap

Billy’s parents purchase a baseball cap for Billy when they visit Mount Rushmore. The cap says “Black Hills” on it, and is nearly carried away by the wind at the Jolly Green Giant statue. Billy lunges to keep the cap, but falls from the observation platform, narrowly avoiding serious injury in the process. Later in the novel, the cap comes to grace the top of the cello-mannequin sculpture his father has made, called “Poetry Man”.

Dioramas

Dioramas of animal habitats are created by Billy and Ned for their class, and by Sal because she wants to make one for the Drop Sisters. Billy worries that his bat cave diorama looks like a two-year old has made it, even though his father helps him. Disaster strikes when Sal puts glitter into the cave, but Papa saves the day by removing most of the glitter, and...