88 pages • 2 hours read
Jordan SonnenblickDrums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Dangerous Pie”
The novel opens at Steven’s eighth-grade graduation, where he is thinking about how much his life has changed in the last ten months. The story then goes back in time to the beginning of the school year, when Steven is writing in his journal for English class on the topic, “the most annoying thing in the world” (1). Steven can’t focus on the prompt because he is distracted by Renee Albert, “the hottest girl in school,” who is sitting right in front of him. He starts to make a list of things that annoy him, including “journal assignments,” “hot girls who never look at skinny geeks,” and “being a skinny geek named Steven” (2), until he realizes that to him, “the most annoying thing in the world” is his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey (2-3). In his journal, Steven explains that he resents Jeffrey for taking his place as the only child in the household and for demanding so much attention from him and his parents. Although Jeffrey worships his older brother, Steven is annoyed by the way Jeffrey constantly follows him around and destroys his possessions. As an example, he tells the story of “the ‘Dangerous Pie’ incident” (5). One day last year, he came home to discover that his “Special Sticks”–a pair of drumsticks signed by his idol, Carter Beauford, the drummer in the Dave Mathews Band–were missing (6). He suspected his little brother and ran into the kitchen to see Jeffrey sitting in the middle of a huge mess stirring “a zesty blend of coffee grounds, raw eggs and their smashed shells, Coke, uncooked bacon, and three Matchbox racing cars” in a pot with the Special Sticks (7). Jeffrey explained to Steven that he was using the “Special Sticks” to make “Dangerous Pie” (7).
Steven then describes the “Please kill me, Mom” affair, when Jeffrey embarrassed Steven after last year’s All-City Jazz Band Concert. The concert was very important to Steven since he was the first seventh-grade drummer ever admitted into the jazz band; he and a piano player named Annette Watson are the only middle schoolers in the entire band. After the concert, however, Jeffrey humiliated him in front of his crush, Renee, who came to the concert to see her boyfriend perform. Jeffrey ran up to Renee screaming, “MY BROTHER IS A ROCK STAR!” and told her how Steven often practices playing the drums in front of the mirror in his underwear (11). Steven was mortified and whispered, “Please kill me” to his mom (12). After quoting this journal entry, Steven states that he got an A on this assignment about Jeffrey’s annoying antics from his teacher, Miss Palma. Thinking back, however, he realizes would “have eaten the Dangerous Pie if [he] could have stopped October from happening” (12).
Chapter 2 Summary: “Jeffrey’s Moatmeal Accident”
On October 7th of his 8th-grade year, Steven gets up early to practice the drums. Just as he begins practicing, Jeffrey comes in and tells Steven that he isn’t feeling well and that his “parts” are hurting (14). He asks his brother to make him some “moatmeal” for breakfast to “warm up [his] parts” (15). While Steven is making the oatmeal, Jeffrey falls off the stool and hits his face on the counter. Jeffrey’s nose begins to bleed, and Steven rushes to help stop the bleeding with the aid of a towel. Their parents hear Jeffrey screaming and rush into the kitchen. Steven is terrified that he will get in trouble because his mother has told him not to let Jeffrey sit on the bar stools without close supervision. The family realizes that Jeffrey’s nose is bleeding an abnormal amount, and the boys’ mother rushes to take him to the emergency room. Steven’s dad drives him to school, and they remain silent and apprehensive for the entire ride.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Anxiety with Tic Tacs”
Steven spends the school day worrying about whether Jeffrey is seriously hurt and if he will get in trouble for letting him fall off the stool. During English class, he takes out a box of orange Tic Tacs and makes up a complex math problem in his journal to determine how many minutes he will have to wait between Tic Tacs if he wants to make the box last the whole day. He folds the journal page in half so that Miss Palma will know that he doesn’t want her to read it. After math class, Renee asks him if he is ok, he seems out of it. He starts to explain how his brother fell that morning, but she walks away to talk to her friends. At the end of the day, Steven has his drum lesson during his “Opportunity Period,” which helps get his mind off the events of that morning. Mr. Watras, the band teacher, tells Steven that he wants to do the Dizzy Gillespie piece “Cubana Be Cubana Bop” at the spring concert and asks Steven if he would like to play the conga part. Steven is thrilled at the prospect of playing such an important part in the concert and is in a much better mood until Renee asks him about his brain injury on the bus. He ignores her and goes to sit next to Annette. He tells Annette about how he is worried that his parents will blame him for Jeffrey’s accident since he let him sit on the stool unsupervised. Annette remarks that his mom was right about it being dangerous for Jeffrey to sit on the stool since he did end up falling off. Steven gets angry at her for making him feel worse and storms off the bus. When he gets home, his mom tells him that his brother is very sick but that it had nothing to do with his fall this morning. To his later shame, Steven’s first reaction to learning that his brother has leukemia is relief that he won’t get in trouble.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters establish the importance of the three topics listed in the title – “drums, girls, and dangerous pie” – to the character of Steven and the plot of the novel. First, we learn that Steven is a talented drummer and particularly proud of being the youngest drummer ever admitted into the All-City Jazz Band, an ensemble that has become a big part of his life. Being one of the youngest members of the band has its downsides, however. For instance, while the other band members have nicknames like “the King,” “the Duke,” and “the Princess,” Steven has been nicknamed “the Peasant” (9). Knowing that Steven doesn’t like the nickname, Mr. Watras shortens it to the cooler-sounding “Pez” (32). Throughout the novel, Sonnenblick frequently alludes to famous drummers and jazz musicians through the music Steven plays. For instance, in Chapter One, Steven explains that he got his “Special Sticks” when his dad took him to participate in a workshop with his “drum hero,” Carter Beauford, the drummer in the Dave Matthews Band (9). In Chapter Three, Mr. Watras introduces Steven to the music of the jazz trumpeter and band leader, Dizzy Gillespie, and assigns him the conga part in the Latin number “Cubana Be Cubana Bop.” These allusions help the reader to get a better sense of Steven’s enthusiasm for music.
As an adolescent boy, Steven also spends a lot of time thinking about girls. The first chapters introduce two female characters, both girls at Steven’s school, whom he perceives very differently. Steven has a crush on Renee Albert, one of “hottest” and most popular girls in the school. However, Renee already has a boyfriend and rarely pays attention to Steven, even when he tries to tell her about Jeffrey’s injury. In contrast, Annette Watson is very attentive to Steven and shows concern when she hears Jeffrey has been hurt. She also has much in common with Steven since she is a gifted pianist who also plays in the jazz band. According to Steven, Annette “may be the only kid in the middle school who cares about music the way I do” (8). While it is clear to the reader that Annette has a crush on Steven, Steven does not realize this and fails to see her as someone he could be romantically interested in.
Finally, the first chapter explains the origin of the phrase, “dangerous pie.” Jeffrey calls the mixture of random cooking ingredients that he stirs with Steven’s “Special Sticks” as “Dangerous Pie,” and Steven initially characterizes this incident as an example of how annoying his little brother can be. At the end of Chapter One, however, Steven states that he would “have eaten the Dangerous Pie if [he] could have stopped October from happening” (12). This statement suggests that “dangerous pie” will come to represent how far Steven is willing to go to help his little brother in his brother’s battle against cancer. These early chapters prepare the reader for a story in which Jeffrey’s potentially fatal diagnosis will help Steven to realize how big a part of his life his brother truly is.
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