49 pages • 1 hour read
Kekla MagoonThe Season of Styx Malone
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A 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 1-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Extra-Ordinary”
Caleb Franklin, 10, does not want to be ordinary despite his father’s insistence that they are just “ordinary folks” (3). He lives in Sutton, Indiana but has pictures of faraway places taped above his top bunk. His father calls him “extraordinary” when he recognizes a bit of classical music on TV, but the last thing Caleb wants is to be “extra-ordinary”—which (he thinks) means even more “plain and normal” than anyone else (5). On the Fourth of July, Dad takes Caleb, Caleb’s 11-year-old brother Bobby Gene, and their one-year-old sister Susie to the union hall picnic. Dad leaves the brothers in charge of Susie while he plays cards. Caleb and Bobby Gene discover Cory Cormier, a bully Bobby Gene’s age, soliciting offers for trading his giant gunnysack of fireworks. When Caleb and Bobby Gene arrive, Cory is saying no to every offer. Caleb is enamored with the position Cory has over the other kids: “I could practically taste the thrill of power” (7).
Chapter 2 Summary: “A Bag of Trouble”
Bobby Gene lifts Susie high to sniff her diaper, and Cory thinks they are offering a trade. Cory won’t trade with anyone else, but he really wants a baby sister. He takes the deal immediately. Dad walks home ahead of Caleb, Bobby Gene, and the gunnysack, not noticing that Susie is gone; he is disgruntled with “his head full of other people’s politics and a lot of biting his tongue” (11). Dad feels he must stay in the good graces of the union for the sake of appearances and keeping the family safe, something Caleb can’t comprehend. Mom notices Susie’s absence immediately upon arriving home from work; she is not calm.
Chapter 3 Summary: “No Take-Backs”
Mom drives the boys straight to the Cormier house, where Cory’s mother is apologetic; Cory would not tell her whose baby it was. Both mothers reprimand the boys. Bobby Gene tries to ease Mom’s concerns by saying the trade was fair, but no one reveals that the objects traded were fireworks. The moms spontaneously decide that four weeks of an extra hour of chores at one house or the other will be their punishment.
The next morning, Mom tells the boys that Cory will soon arrive for chore hour. Caleb and Bobby Gene know they must hide the fireworks very quickly.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Meeting Styx Malone”
Caleb chastises himself for wanting to be special as he and Bobby Gene run into the woods behind their house, aiming to stash the fireworks before Cory can demand them back. Caleb’s father is always telling him he’s just like everyone else: “This is what I got for trying to make myself stand out” (17). They trip over a young man as he sits leaning up against a shagbark hickory. This is 16-year-old Styx Malone. Styx goes on the offensive and grabs Bobby Gene around the neck. Caleb thinks Styx looks fearful; he tells him they will not hurt him. They introduce themselves after Caleb fibs that he and Bobby Gene are running away. He says he lives in a house nearby with “plenty of people keeping tabs on me” (22). Caleb senses there is something special about Styx, and Bobby Gene must feel it too, because when Styx looks inside the gunnysack, they do not stop him.
Chapter 5 Summary: “‘Anything Man’”
Caleb and Bobby Gene allow Styx to take the fireworks off their hands. He shows them his business card: “Styx Malone: Anything Man.” Caleb is impressed by Styx’s demeanor, card, and opinions; Styx says that the boys should not fear Cory because: “You gave up nothing and got something major in return” (25). Styx says he will come to mediate a truce between the Franklin brothers and Cory so that Cory won’t bully them, then Styx, Caleb, and Bobby Gene will trade the fireworks for something they can split. Caleb convinces Styx that the split should be thirds, and Styx soon agrees.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Chores with Cory Cormier”
Back home, Caleb is surprised to see Cory holding Susie happily. Cory tries to act tough but Caleb stands his ground, calling him “baby lover” when Cory calls them “losers.” The boys weed the garden together, taking turns with a pair of binoculars to spot weeds. Cory calls the garden lame; when Caleb jumps up to fight him, he gets tangled in a tomato cage and the three end up laughing good-naturedly. Cory tells them they are all right, and Caleb knows Cory won’t bully them anymore.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Mediation”
Cory knows scientific information about the ice age, and soon they begin to check rocks to see if they are bones or fossils. Eventually Cory asks for his fireworks back. Bobby Gene fibs and says Mom took them away; Caleb and Bobby Gene claim they covered for Cory and consequently don’t owe him anything.
Styx arrives and immediately starts mediating. He determines from Cory’s silence on the origin of the fireworks that the “the goods are hot” (42). Styx offers to make the fireworks disappear so Cory won’t be in trouble for having them and offers him a cut of $50. Cory agrees.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Great Escalator Trade”
At noon on Thursday, Bobby Gene and Caleb find Styx in the woods. He explains they can get a lot for the fireworks if they follow the Great Escalator Trade model. He tells them about the origin of the Great Escalator Trade: a man got a paper clip from a friend for free. Then the man traded the clip for a pen, the pen for tape, the tape for scissors, the scissors for a stapler, and so on until he got a laptop computer, which he traded for a sound system, then a used car. Finally, he traded up for a mansion. Bobby Gene and Caleb are incredibly impressed. They discuss what their end goal would be in the Great Escalator Trade. Bobby Gene suggests a swimming pool, but Styx points out that a pool would be awfully hard to hide. He offers to share his ideas if they walk along with him. Bobby Gene says they should tell Mom, but Caleb points out that they are with Styx, not alone.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Grasshopper”
The boys follow Styx into town where they definitely are not allowed to go without telling Mom. Styx shows them an amazing moped in the hardware store window. Caleb thinks it looks like a large grasshopper as it is painted green. The boys are shocked and amazed at the prospect of trading until the moped belongs to them; the moped costs almost $500. Styx says the fireworks are worth enough to trade up easily. Bobby Gene asks what they would need a moped for, but Styx focuses on the beauty of the machine and its power: “Ride like the wind” (54). Styx says he has a license and can drive, as he is 16. They walk home, Caleb enjoying the feeling of breaking the rules with Styx.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Candy Cigarettes”
The next day, Styx brings candy cigarettes and the three boys hang in the school playground, dreaming about taking the moped to faraway places. Styx says he already has someone to take the fireworks, and they can meet the person in the afternoon after chore hour with Cory. Caleb asks if they can go on the Grasshopper to Indy (Indianapolis), and Styx laughs. He does not understand that Dad does not permit their family members to go to the city, even for a school trip like the Children’s Museum. Dad says they are safe where they are. The brothers claim they know a lot about Sutton’s plants and animals, making Styx laugh over their stories of past squirrel antics and snail races. Caleb loves the feeling of getting Styx to laugh.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Polenta”
Caleb and Bobby Gene share with Mom some things about Styx Malone, but they keep most to themselves. Mom cooks polenta and meatballs while they talk. Bobby Gene mentions how Styx could take them to the city, but Dad immediately says, “No sons of mine have cause to go into the city” (64). Caleb tells Mom that Dad watches too much news. Mom agrees but implies there is more societal anger outside of Sutton than Caleb understands. She also tells Caleb she wants to meet Styx.
Chapters 1-11 Analysis
Chapters 1 to 11 establish the one-thing-leads-to-another pattern of the plot. Each conflict Caleb and Bobby Gene enter leads to an incrementally more complicated conflict: trading Susie for fireworks leads to trouble with Cory; trouble with Cory means they must stash the fireworks; hiding the fireworks brings them to meet Styx; meeting Styx compels the need to get the moped. In this way, the plot structure itself is similar to Styx’s Great Escalator Trade model in which the barterer hopes to procure a possession just a little more valuable than the one he traded; in a parallel way, each plot conflict is just slightly more trouble than the one that came before.
Caleb is so enamored with his new acquaintance Styx and all the promise Styx brings—promise, for example, of the moped, of adventure, of “wind in your hair” (54)—that he cannot see the escalating conflict in each step. Bobby Gene begins to emerge as a dramatic foil to Caleb, in that he represents the voice of caution and greater maturity who attempts, if not to completely stop Styx’s momentum, at least to slow it a little: “What would we ever do with a moped?” (54). Bobby Gene’s attempts at prudence, however, are quickly and consistently rejected by Caleb as handily as he deals with yanking the weeds in their garden. Caleb is driven by his dreams of getting out of Sutton on the road to somewhere exciting—and if he can get there while rising as a powerful influence on others, the way he sees in Cory at the union hall or Styx in his every word and deed, all the better.
The more subtle preexisting conflict regarding Dad’s ideas and feelings is established in this opening set of chapters as well. Magoon alludes to his strong opinions about politics; readers do not know yet what exactly his opinions are, but only that “[g]oing to the [union] hall was like a job to Dad. A job he hated” (11). He verbally reacts to the TV news programs about the importance of what “ordinary folks” want (much to the chagrin of the misunderstanding Caleb): lower gas prices, going to church on Sundays, and an end to bickering about “who you’ve been stepping out with” (3). He insists that his boys will never go to Indianapolis, even for school trips as there is no need. His true intentions, according to Mom, are to keep children and family safe from the dangers of a harsh world full of judgment and unfairness, but Caleb cannot understand this.
Finally, the opening chapters offer no shortage of mysteries about Styx Malone. Caleb upholds the 16-year-old as a kind of magical demigod complete with special powers and connections that make even the finding of forbidden treats like candy cigarettes easy. Styx’s confidence and charm, however, is belied by a lack of details the discerning readers will see right away despite Caleb’s rosy opinion. Styx mentions no parents; he insinuates he has lived in several places; he recognizes from Cory’s reaction to questions that the fireworks are illegal; he is very quick to defeat Bobby Gene and keep him in a chokehold on their first meeting. Caleb in that moment sees fear in Styx’s eyes, but rather than question it, he quickly forgets the fear as the conversation turns to far more interesting topics. Caleb’s own excitement and desire prevent him from recognizing the obstacles that Styx faces as a child in the foster care system and from deducing Styx’s motives, which are slowly revealed throughout the novel.
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By Kekla Magoon
