32 pages • 1 hour read
Peg KehretEscaping the Giant Wave
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The novel begins with Kyle, the protagonist, receiving an assignment to make a list of goals for the summer that are achievable. Kyle’s list revolves around his baseball stats, learning tricks on his scooter, and getting a raise on his allowance (2). As Kyle writes out his list, Daren shoves Kyle’s elbow off his desk and Kyle adds to his list, “make Daren Hazelton leave me alone” (3). Kyle met Daren when he was five and Daren has bullied Kyle ever since, especially because Kyle is physically smaller than Daren and dislikes any kind of confrontation.
At the end of the school day, Kyle clears out his locker for the year and heads home. He learns that he will be babysitting his little sister BeeBee that night for the first time. His parents don’t want to pay him for babysitting, but Kyle uses that to negotiate for a potential higher allowance. Kyle enjoys babysitting his sister and feeling responsible while his parents are out. After Kyle gains more experience in babysitting, his parents tell BeeBee and Kyle that they won a family vacation for his father winning Salesman of the Year at his parents’ real estate firm. They are going to the Oregon coast and staying in a fancy hotel called the Frontier Lodge. Kyle thinks about how he has never been on an airplane or traveled outside of Kansas.
Chapter 2 Summary
While preparing for their upcoming vacation to Oregon, Kyle’s parents tell him that he will need to babysit BeeBee for one night while they’re on an adults-only awards cruise. Kyle is happy about this because he “liked being the one in charge” (16). When they finally leave to go on the vacation, Kyle is excited and likes being in an airport for the first time. Unfortunately, Kyle discovers that Daren is also going on the same vacation because Daren’s mother also works in real estate. Kyle tries to avoid Daren as much as possible and has a good time on the flight sitting next to BeeBee. He decides that he is not going to let Daren bully him because he “didn’t want to spend the first really good vacation of [his] life hiding from Daren” (21).
When Kyle, his family, and the other real estate employees get to the Frontier Lodge in Oregon, they learn that the hotel is still under construction and not ready for guests. Instead, they must stay at the Totem Pole Inn across the street that is preparing for demolition. Kyle’s family sadly accepts this news and receives a small discount on the room after BeeBee negotiates with the hotel receptionist. As they are walking to the hotel across the street, Kyle can hear Daren’s mother yelling at the concierge and Daren whining to his mother about how he wanted to stay in the fancy Frontier Lodge. Later, Kyle realizes that Daren’s family is only staying three doors down from them, making “his dream vacation…seem like a nightmare” (26).
Chapter 3 Summary
At the beach, Kyle and his family find a tsunami warning sign. They read that “tsunamis are dangerous, have struck the Oregon coast many times, and can follow within minutes of an earthquake” (29-30). Kyle’s parents tell them that a tsunami happening is highly unlikely, but they still read what to do if a tsunami were to happen just in case. While playing on the beach, Kyle decides to make a picture frame on the sand using shells. He’s proud of his seashell frame, so he goes back to the hotel room to grab a camera to take a picture of it.
At the hotel, he runs into Daren. Daren tells Kyle he’ll go to the beach with him. As Daren gets in the elevator to go back to the ground floor of the hotel, Kyle suddenly decides to take the stairs down so he can avoid spending time alone in the elevator with Daren. Once he gets downstairs, he notices that the elevator is stuck with Daren inside. Kyle contemplates leaving Daren there, but then he “[thinks] how scary it would be to get stuck in an elevator” and tells the lobby clerk about it before heading back to the beach (33). When Kyle goes to take the picture of his beach shell frame, Daren arrives from the hotel just in time to jump on the picture last minute and ruin it. Daren denies ruining the photo and accuses Kyle of leaving him in the elevator. Instead of sticking up for himself, Kyle walks away to his parents thinking that he’s “a big baby who’s scared to stand up for himself” (35). Kyle’s mother asks if Daren should join him and BeeBee that night while all the parents are on the awards cruise and Kyle tells his mom that he doesn’t like Daren.
That night, Kyle and BeeBee order room service, ready to enjoy the night on their own while their parents attend the awards cruise. Kyle puts the chain on the door in case Daren decides to drop by unannounced, and they play card games until dinner time. BeeBee goes to get candy bars from the vending machine down the hall but does not return.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The novel begins with the definition of “tsunami,” which foreshadows the conflict of the novel immediately even though the first mention of tsunami for the characters isn’t until Chapter 3. The foreshadowing of the larger conflict of the novel continues throughout the first three chapters. At the end of Chapter 1, Kyle jokes that his little sister BeeBee would cancel the vacation to save money and then foreshadows that something will go wrong on the vacation: “it’s always easy to know the right choice after it’s too late to go back and change your mind” (14).
At the end of Chapter 2, Kyle’s “dream vacation was beginning to seem like a nightmare” when he finds out his bully Daren is going on the same vacation (26). However, the reader knows that a tsunami will be a large part of the novel, so Kyle’s nightmare vacation isn’t only centered around Daren, but is also centered around the impending tsunami that Kyle does not yet know about. Kyle’s lack of awareness about the foreshadowed tsunami demonstrates dramatic irony in the narrative. Chapter 3 most obviously foreshadows the tsunami when Kyle and his family see the tsunami warning sign on the Oregon beach. The chapter sets up how Kyle, BeeBee, and Daren will be alone when the tsunami hits while their parents are on the real estate awards cruise.
Kyle is the protagonist of the novel and almost all events in the novel occur through his point of view. He has several moments of internal dialogue that display his evolving confidence and maturity, such as when he calls himself a coward for not sticking up to Daren (35). Although his list of goals is assigned by his teacher, Kyle is already a goal-setter. He likes to be in charge, which is why Daren is the antagonist. As the bully, Daren takes Kyle’s sense of power away from him through physical and mental intimidation. This power struggle creates internal conflict for Kyle because he “[dislikes] confrontation of any kind…. physical conflict most of all” (4). Because the reader knows that a tsunami is coming and that Daren, BeeBee, and Kyle are alone at the hotel, the tumultuous relationship between Daren and Kyle will be put to the test when the larger man versus nature conflict comes into play in the following chapters.
Related Titles
By Peg Kehret
