80 pages • 2 hours read
Kwame AlexanderBlack Star
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5, Introduction Summary: “The Story of the Swim”
Nana shares how he and his cousin Kofi swam for hours or days. They swam through the ocean until they were exhausted. Then, magic happened. They were carried to shore. The boys were found by white people who they didn’t trust. These white people turned out to be good, stating that they’d help the boys get back home.
Chapter 5, Poem 1 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Surprise”
In her dream, Charley is battling Cecil’s team on the field. She’s pitching well, but she notices something strange about the batter. Before she can interpret it, Daddy wakes her up.
Chapter 5, Poem 2 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Workout”
Charley tells Daddy everything he missed in the last month, from Nana’s sickness, to meeting Mary Bethune, to her bet against Cecil. Daddy listens carefully to everything.
Chapter 5, Poem 3 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Breakfast”
Charley brings Nana his breakfast and asks him about the magic in his swimming story. Nana explains that a greater spirit, something divine beyond their understanding, helped him and his cousin survive.
Charley shares her concern about the game, and Nana advises her to be brave.
Chapter 5, Poem 4 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Conversation”
Over breakfast, Daddy encourages Charley about her baseball skills and her team. When she says that the nephews are “crackpots,” Daddy laughs hard. They discuss Mary’s boarding school, but Charley doesn’t want to leave home. She’s considering being a teacher or professor, though, as well as a pitcher. Daddy supports all her dreams.
Chapter 5, Poem 5 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Visitors”
Willie and his father stop by for breakfast. While the adults talk, Charley tells Willie about Mary and her inspirational speech. He barely responds, so Charley wonders if something is wrong.
Chapter 5, Poem 6 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Uniform”
Everyone wears fancy outfits for church, including suits and dresses. Charley brings a bag with her baseball clothes for after church.
Chapter 5, Poem 7 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Arrival”
Cecil passes out church bulletins with his father, the pastor, and sticks his tongue out at Charley secretly.
Charley’s family sits in the front pew, with Willie’s behind her. Normally, he sneaks her notes or snacks, but today he doesn’t.
Chapter 5, Poem 8 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Welcome”
The two brother pastors and their congregations are split. The brothers meet at the pulpit for the sermon, but they don’t shake hands.
Chapter 5, Poem 9 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Opening Selection”
When they sing “Amazing Grace” by heart, Nana doesn’t join in. The white people sang this song in their church when he was trapped in a dungeon before being taken away on the slave ship.
Chapter 5, Poem 10 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Announcements”
Both pastors list their accomplishments of the past year. The service drags on. When Charley looks back at Willie, he won’t meet her eyes.
Chapter 5, Poem 11 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Service”
After a long church service, they finally get to celebrate at the picnic and play ball.
Chapter 5, Poem 12 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Picnic Menu”
Everyone enjoys homemade food, such as fried chicken, potato salad, and sweet tea. The churchgoers celebrate with food and laughter. Daddy hides a flask that he sips from.
Chapter 5, Poem 13 Summary: “Fifth Sunday United”
The congregations sit together on the benches at Mosquito Park to watch the festivities. They finally feel united as one church.
Chapter 5, Poem 14 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Team”
Henry, Plum, and Juju join Charley. The nephews explain that they practiced hard and followed all of Charley’s written instructions, but it didn’t go well. They’ll try their best.
Henry points out Willie, who is talking with their “enemy,” Cecil.
Chapter 5, Poem 15 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Drama”
From across the churchyard, Cecil and his team act nonchalantly. Charley is confused about Willie talking with them. Cecil’s team walks toward them, and Charley prays that her ancestors can help her today.
Chapter 5, Poem 16 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Problem”
As the site of many church activities, Mosquito Park is occupied. The kids wait for the festivities, like horseshoes, music, and the limbo, to end. It takes too long.
Chapter 5, Poem 17 Summary: “Fifth Sunday Solution”
The kids discuss what to do about the busy field. Cecil mocks Charley, but she has a plan to still play today.
Chapter 5 Analysis
In the poem “Fifth Sunday Workout,” the novel in verse switches to a more traditional prose style to match Charley’s quick, excited speech. Ecstatic to see her father after his absence, Charley eagerly fills him in on everything he’s missed in a long-winded sentence:
Nana Kofi is sick but hopefully he’s feeling better and I went with him to Great Bridge to pay his taxes and did you know he was captured on a prison ship from Africa and that our family owns thirty-five acres […] and the wonderfuls aren’t all mean, but if the ones who aren’t mean don’t say anything or do anything to stop the mean ones then they are just as bad and I met the smartest […] BLACK, woman ever (214).
This outpouring of information reflects Charley’s joy at her father’s return and emphasizes their close connection. The long, unbroken prose paragraph mirrors her emotional state—capturing the speed and enthusiasm of her dialogue. The unbroken formatting allows her excitement to flow without interruption.
Before “Fifth Sunday Workout,” Nana’s stories were the only prose sections. Alexander presents them in a storytelling format that suits his character. Nana’s speech uses many ellipses to convey his pauses and details left unsaid. His prose emphasizes his role as a keeper of Generational History and Self-Discovery Through Family Legacy. By contrast, the prose in “Fifth Sunday Workout” aligns with Charley’s personality and her enthusiasm to share information with Daddy. This selective use of prose highlights key emotional moments, reinforcing the connection between formatting, speech, and characterization.
The poem “Fifth Sunday Problem” employs anaphora to reflect Charley’s impatience. Alexander takes the opening words, “We watch the babies” (242), and builds on them with each subsequent line. This literary device, which involves repetition, reinforces the dragging pace of time as Charley and her friends wait for the field to open. Each line begins with the same words, gradually expanding with details: “We watch the babies crawling / We watch the babies crawling and the Bible scavenger hunt / We watch the babies crawling and the Bible scavenger hunt and play horseshoes” (242). The repeated use of “and” elongates the lines to match the seemingly endless wait and the characters’ growing frustration. The anaphora slows the poem’s pacing and creates a rhythmic monotony that displays Charley’s impatience. By combining anaphora with this layered structure, Alexander emphasizes Charley’s experience of time feeling suspended. This layered anaphora underscores the tension between the kids’ eagerness to play and the constraints of their circumstances as they await the game starting.
Related Titles
By Kwame Alexander
