50 pages • 1 hour read
Jason ReynoldsLu
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 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “A New Name for Riding in a Cab: Trapped in a Rolling Room with Roommates Who Think They Know Everything in the Whole World”
Coach gets down on all fours on the track and instructs Lu to practice hurdling by jumping over him. Coach instructs Lu to “lead with the knee” (26) and has him practice multiple times. Coach then pulls over a real hurdle and blows his whistle for Lu to practice. Lu runs towards the hurdle, but just as he reaches it, he stops short. Lu feels embarrassed because track usually comes easily. Coach tells Lu to stop for the day, and Lu feels like he has failed. He tries to convince Coach to let him keep practicing but Coach tells him to go run with the rest of the team for the rest of practice.
On the way home from practice, Coach asks Lu if he is scared to jump hurdles. Lu says that he is only scared of stumbling and falling: “I ain’t built for that kind of embarrassment, Coach. Plus I’m way too pretty for bruises” (32). Lu's joke does not amuse Coach. Coach slows down when he sees two men walking on the sidewalk, one whose “face looked forty but his body looked eighty” (33) and another man with “an old body and an old face” and “a wild jumpy bop” (33). Coach asks the young-faced old man, Mr. Jeff, if everything is alright, and Mr. Jeff responds that he is fine but that the other man is bothering him for money. Coach reaches into his pocket and hands the jumpy man the money. The man thanks Coach and explains, “I just need to get something to eat. You know how it is. Just something to eat” (34). Lu notices that the man acts jittery and smells bad.
As they drive away, Coach reveals that the jittery man is assistant coach Coach Whit’s brother Torrie “the Wolf '' Cunningham who was a legendary runner from Lu’s neighborhood, Barnaby Terrace. Lu says that he has heard about Torrie Cunningham from his father. Coach explains that he ran track against the Wolf in high school until the Wolf quit running in his senior year after becoming addicted to drugs. Coach states that letting “something get in the way of your full potential” (37) is true embarrassment, unlike Lu’s worries about jumping the hurdle. Lu’s mind reels with this new information as Coach pulls up in front of Lu’s house. Coach tells Lu to forget about “all that embarrassment nonsense” (38) because falling is a part of the process.
Chapter 4 Summary: “A New Name for Little Brother: Little Sister”
While waiting for his parents to return home from their doctor’s appointment, Lu admits to himself that he wants the baby to be a boy, so that he could see what he would look like if he did not have albinism. He also admits that he feels conflicted about the new baby because it makes his own birth seem less special because “if there’s another miracle, then the first one just becomes a cool thing that happened. But not… a miracle no more” (43). He assures himself that being a big brother cannot be scarier than jumping hurdles.
Lu’s mom tells him that he is going to have a little sister. Sensing his disappointment, Lu’s parents ask him what is wrong. Lu admits that he wanted a brother because he wants to know what he would have looked like if he was “normal” (46). Lu’s mother tells him that his little sister will see herself in Lu because he is her big brother. Lu’s dad, Gordon “Goose,” trying to lighten the mood, teases Lu and says that he sees himself in Lu, too.
Goose and Lu wash the dishes after dinner, and Lu asks Goose if he meant what he said about seeing himself in Lu. Goose says that when he was Lu’s age all he wanted was to be cool, which did not come easily to him. Lu is surprised to hear this because his father is the coolest person he knows. Lu tells Goose that he saw the Wolf on the way home from practice and asks why Goose never told him that the Wolf is addicted to drugs now.
Goose changes the subject by explaining the origins of his nickname. Goose explains that he used to have a debilitating stutter that made him jerk and bob his head around when he tried to speak. Goose says that people started calling him Goose as a result, but the person that really solidified it as his nickname was Coach (who then went by his first name, Otis). Goose tells Lu that he and Coach grew up together and that Goose’s family took care of Coach when his mom was working and his dad struggled with addiction.
To keep them out of trouble, Goose’s mother encouraged both Goose and Coach to join the track team. While Coach excelled, Goose struggled and the teasing about his stutter became worse. His teammates would pretend to flap their wings and cluck at Goose whenever he finished a race. Eventually, Goose admits that the teasing became too much for him, so he quit running track. He tells Lu that he wanted to be cool so badly that he turned to selling drugs.
Goose reveals that the Wolf, struggling under the pressure to perform well in track, asked Goose for something to give him extra speed at a big race, which led to his drug addiction. Lu gasps to learn that his father also sold Coach’s dad the hit that led to his death by overdose. Goose says that Coach does not know this, however. Goose now works as a rehab recruiter to try and rectify what he did, going around to different neighborhoods handing out notes to addicts from their family members, encouraging them to go to rehab.
Goose concludes his story by telling Lu that when he looks at him he sees who he was before he started dealing drugs. He sees the potential in Lu and tells him that he will be a good big brother and that he wants Lu to choose his baby sister’s name.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
Lu learns important lessons in these chapters which have far-reaching implications for his character development. When Lu continues to struggle to jump the hurdle in practice, his confidence crumbles: “[Coach says] ‘That’s enough for today.’ That’s what he said, but what I heard was, You can’t do it. Felt like I got punched in the back” (28). This quote shows how much Lu’s confidence depends on performing well and avoiding the embarrassment of failure, and how he interprets Coach’s innocuous statement that they should end practice for the day as a negative reflection on himself.
Lu’s assertion that he isn’t “built for that kind of embarrassment” (32) makes Coach concerned that Lu only wants to appear cool in front of others which could be a detriment to both Lu’s talent and his ability to take risks. To mitigate this, Coach tells Lu the story of Torrie “the Wolf” Cunningham, who cut short his promising career as a runner when he began taking drugs. Coach shares this story with Lu to remind him that nothing is worth getting in the way of his potential—including embarrassment. Coach says, “Sometimes we fall. It happens” (38). In other words, appearances are not everything in life, and sometimes they can lead people to make the wrong decisions. This lesson becomes increasingly important to Lu as he learns more about how his father let his own embarrassment and fear shape him.
Names also emerge as an important symbol in the text within these chapters. The chapter title naming convention (“A new name for…”) shows the importance of names and the way that names shape people and their choices. In the text, names are a powerful tool for forming one’s identity, such as when Lu repeats his mantra to pump himself up: “I am The Lu. Lucky Lu” (1). Lu’s father’s name is Gordon, but his nickname Goose was a source of discomfort to him when he was younger because it was connected to teasing about his speech impediment.
When Lu tells his father what he learned about the Wolf, Goose reveals his connection to the story. Goose admits that his desire to be well-liked, and his pain about his nickname, eventually led him down a fraught path:
After a while it started really getting to me. So I quit. I wanted to be a winner, Lu. To be cool. And at the time, I couldn’t see nothing down the line in my life. I would only see what was right in front of me. And what was in front of me was stuttering and Goose jokes. So at fifteen I decided to do the only other thing I saw as cool around my way. (51)
Goose began selling drugs, which not only ended the Wolf’s running career, but killed Coach’s father. Goose’s story shows Lu the pitfalls of pursuing social status regardless of the cost, a lesson that echoes Coach’s earlier sentiments. Goose uses his history as word of warning:
“When I see you, I see the me before all that [...] When I look at you, I see the me with potential. The me who was…different, but good” –he pointed to his chest– “in here. I don’t care what you lose, kid. Just don’t lose that” (53-54).
Goose implies that when he sees Lu, he sees a younger version of himself with integrity. When Goose gives Lu the important responsibility of choosing his baby sister’s name, it further cements the importance of names within the text and Goose’s belief in Lu’s integrity. A name is a powerful thing, and Goose shows Lu how much he believes in and trusts him through giving him the power to name his baby sister.
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