43 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeOtherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Libby starts to get excited about Jennifer having puppies, although the vet says she won’t have them until September when the Tubmans are back home. The day camp announces auditions for their upcoming production of Peter Pan, and Libby sets her heart on playing Wendy. Sheila says Libby’s voice is terrible, and she and Mouse decide to paint scenery instead of auditioning. To Libby’s horror, she gets the role of Captain Hook, and she cries for days because she “[doesn’t] want to play the part of some disgusting old man!” (88). Libby looks at herself in the mirror and calls herself ugly, and she tells Sheila she’s ugly too because they look alike. Their mother explains that Libby is making excuses and feeling ugly because she didn’t get something she wanted, and that real beauty comes from the inside. Libby decides to learn all the parts in the play so she can step in and play Wendy if need be.
During the play, Sheila and Mouse stand on the stage to hold up one of the set pieces so it doesn’t fall over, and the girl playing Wendy—Maryann Markman—gets stage fright and sings so quietly no one can hear her. When she freezes up and can’t say her lines, Sheila tries to whisper the lines to Maryann, but when this is unsuccessful, she takes over and says all of Maryann’s lines for her during the second act. Libby is furious with Sheila and tells her she ruined the play, announcing she is “never speaking to [Sheila] again” (94).
Chapter 12 Summary
Sheila continues to progress with her swimming lessons. One day, Marty tells Sheila she absolutely must put her face in the water, because he can’t teach her anything new until she does. Sheila finally admits she can’t put her face in the water because she is scared, and Marty congratulates her for finally being honest about her fears. He teaches Sheila to put her face in the water and blow bubbles so she won’t accidentally breathe in water, and although Sheila hesitates, she remembers Marty will have to pay back Sheila’s mother if Sheila doesn’t learn how to swim with her face in the water, and Sheila “hate[s] to think of Marty having a hard time because of [her]” (96). After a few failed attempts, she manages to blow bubbles, and Marty tells her to do it 10 times to show she has mastered it. After her fourth round, Sheila inhales water and begs Marty to let her stop for the day. Marty agrees, but he tells Sheila he’s going to give her Beginner’s Swimming Test before the end of the summer. Sheila is nervous, but Marty says he believes in her.
Chapter 13 Summary
Sheila has her first slumber party with Mouse, Sondra, and Jane. Libby invites Maryann to spend the night as well, and Sheila worries Libby and Maryann will ruin everything. When Mouse, Sondra, and Jane arrive, Mouse suggests the girls make a Slam Book: The girls take turns writing down their true feelings about each other in a notebook, and Mouse insists they have “got to be honest or it won’t do any of [them] any good” (104). Sheila doesn’t hesitate to write her brutal opinions about each of the girls, but when she gets her own results back, she is shocked and furious. In addition to making fun of her face and body, the other girls call her bossy, a know-it-all, and a coward. Pandemonium breaks out as the girls, hurt by the results of the Slam Book, start to fight and throw Bobby Egran’s model airplanes at each other. Libby hears the commotion and tries to intervene, but Sheila yells at her to leave them alone and the other girls join in. Sheila realizes several of Bobby’s model airplanes are damaged, and the girls help her try to repair them.
When Sheila’s mother comes home, Libby tells her Sheila and the other girls were “awful,” and that they were “yelling and screaming and throwing around all the models” (111). Sheila and her friends deny the allegations, and Mrs. Tubman believes them. Later, Mouse declares they must get revenge on Libby and Maryann for telling on them, and they put toothpaste on the toilet seat so Libby or Maryann will sit in it. However, Sheila gets up in the morning, forgets about the prank, and sits in the toothpaste. She screams, and when her parents come running, Mouse claims toothpaste is great for mosquito bites, which is why Sheila put it all over herself. Later that night, Sheila’s father asks how her slumber party went, and she calls it “the best slumber party that ever was” (117).
Chapters 11-13 Analysis
These chapters offer a few examples of Sheila’s good heart breaking through her desire to always be the best. During the camp’s production of Peter Pan, Sheila tries to help Maryann without stealing the show by simply feeding her lines. During her swimming lessons, Sheila finally puts her face in the water to make sure Marty doesn’t struggle because of her stubbornness. However, in both instances, Sheila maintains control over the situation in her own head. When Maryann doesn’t respond to the lines, Sheila takes over the role of Wendy for the rest of the production. When she puts her face in the water, she gives up far quicker than Marty would like (four repetitions instead of ten) because she gets upset. These transition points illustrate that, while Sheila’s relationship to Teamwork and Friendship is developing, she still has a ways to go before she can truly be a good friend and work well with others.
Chapter 13 further explores friendship through the slumber party and the Slam Book incident. While Mouse, Jane, and Sondra are often shown as nicer and easier to get along with than Sheila, all four girls take the Slam Book too far and struggle to find anything nice to say about each other. Blume demonstrates that all childhood friendships struggle with judgment and self-centeredness, and that though Sheila is the main character, her issues are by no means unique. However, when their group is targeted from the outside by Libby and Maryann, the four girls quickly come together to get their revenge. Friendship might have its rocky patches, and friends might say hurtful things to one another, but Judy Blume shows friendship also means working together to achieve a common goal (even if that goal is as immature and misguided as the girls’ vengeance, and even if it was appropriate for the older girls to point out the younger ones’ bad behavior). Sheila has struggled to accept help from others throughout the novel, but at the sleepover, she is a team player as the girls repair Bobby’s models and plan the prank to get even with Libby. Even though nothing goes according to plan, Sheila still believes her slumber party was perfect, and for the first time, she understands the thrill that comes from working together instead of trying to do everything by herself.
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By Judy Blume
