46 pages • 1 hour read
Peg KehretEarthquake Terror
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A 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 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
In this chapter, the focus shifts to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s experience of the earthquake. They are driving when the earthquake hits, and the road becomes impassable because of downed trees. Mrs. Palmer can’t walk because of her broken ankle, so Mr. Palmer starts walking to Beaverville to get help. His progress is slowed by the need to climb over downed trees and branches, and he must also avoid downed power lines. Mr. Palmer grows fearful as he wonders whether there will be telephone service in Beaverville; calling for help for both his wife and kids may prove more difficult than he anticipated.
After three hours of walking, he finds a house and explains his situation to the owner; however, the owner has no power, and the telephone and water mains are both out of service. Mr. Palmer continues walking, reaching Beaverville around nightfall, and sees five separate fires burning. The townspeople explain that they cannot put out the fires because the water lines are broken, and broken gas lines are feeding the flames. A kind young man named Kenny offers to help Mr. Palmer clear the road back to his car using a chainsaw. When Mr. Palmer explains that his children are on Magpie Island, Kenny breaks the news that the island is now underwater. Mr. Palmer is shocked and understands that Abby and Jonathan may be dead, but he knows that he must at least try to find them. He walks toward the high school, where emergency services are headquartered, to try to arrange for a search helicopter to look for his children.
Chapter 12 Summary
Back on the Tuscan River, Jonathan and Abby face more problems. Abby’s log hits the remains of an old fishing pier and gets stuck, while Jonathan’s log continues floating down the river. Abby dropped the leash because of the jolt of the collision, so the children are no longer tethered together. In the dark, Jonathan can’t see Abby well and decides that instead of jumping off his log and swimming to hers, he will try to get help in Kendra. As the water carries him west, he tells a sobbing Abby to sing to Charlotte and promises to come back for her. Lying on his log in the cold and the dark, Jonathan feels his tree drifting and decides to swim to shore now and hike into Kendra. He shares his last two sandwiches with Moose, takes several calming breaths, and slips into the water with Moose beside him.
Jonathan dodges several trees by diving quickly underwater and takes occasional breaks from swimming by clinging to floating trees and stumps. Jonathan’s strength starts to wane, and he can see that Moose is getting tired too. Memories from childhood come to his mind, like the excitement of the day Abby was born and the grief and difficulty following her accident, when she fell from a slide at the playground and damaged her spinal cord. He also remembers the determination that his Little League coach taught him. These feelings compel him to keep going, and when Jonathan sees a section of land ahead that curves toward him, he has renewed hope that he can make it. Jonathan adds speed by switching to the front crawl and doesn’t see the tree stump that hits him in the head as it passes. Jonathan falls unconscious and starts to sink.
Chapter 13 Summary
As Mr. Palmer reaches the high school in Beaverville, he is exhausted. He approaches the National Guard table, ignoring the line, and explains that his children were alone on Magpie Island during the earthquake and need help. One woman in line criticizes him for leaving the children unattended, but Mr. Palmer explains that his wife broke her ankle and is still in their car back on the road. The National Guard is unable to send a search helicopter until the morning, and although Mr. Palmer is frustrated, he fights to remain calm. Since nothing more can be done that night, Mr. Palmer leaves with Kenny to clear the road and pick up Mrs. Palmer.
Meanwhile, Abby finally stops crying and understands that as much as she wants to be with her mom, her dad, and Jonathan, none of her family members are around to help her. Her log, Charlotte, is no longer moving down the river, and as Abby looks toward shore, she sees a cabin. Abby wishes she could swim, knowing the cabin would at least offer her shelter and warmth. She tries paddling her tree toward shore and realizes that the water is shallow—her fingertips touch the bottom. She considers what it would be like to crawl with her head underwater and decides to try it. She holds onto the tree and lowers herself into the water until her feet touch the bottom. For a while, she uses the tree as a walker and is pleased to find that her legs work better underwater than on land. When the branches of her tree hit bottom, she crawls forward underwater, alternating between pushing up to breathe and holding her breath to crawl as she makes slow progress toward shore. As she crawls out of the river, she feels immense satisfaction and accomplishment, and it propels her to crawl all the way to the cabin. Once there, she pounds on the door, but no one answers, and the door is locked. She crawls to the rear of the cabin, hoping to find a back door, but there isn’t one. Cold and hungry, Abby falls asleep behind the cabin.
Chapter 14 Summary
Five miles downstream, Jonathan slowly sinks after the tree stump knocks him unconscious. Moose turns into the current toward Jonathan and dives down, pulling the boy up by gently biting his shoulder. Moose runs out of air before he reaches the surface, however, and must let go of Jonathan long enough to get a breath. When Moose dives down again, he goes under Jonathan and pushes him up. When Jonathan’s head breaks the surface, the boy coughs and breathes but remains unconscious, and as soon as Moose comes up for air, Jonathan’s head sinks underwater again. Moose repeats the process of diving down, pushing Jonathan to the surface for air, then coming up to take a breath several times. On the fifth repetition of this process, Jonathan regains consciousness and realizes that Moose saved his life. Even though Jonathan’s head throbs and he coughs up river water, he knows he cannot give up, and strikes out toward the shore.
When Abby wakes back at the cabin, she cries; she is cold, sore, and hungry, and no one knows where she is. Abby understands that she must help herself, but without her walker, her situation feels hopeless. She considers crawling back to the river in case rescuers come looking for her but decides to wait until dawn to return to the river.
Chapters 11-14 Analysis
In Chapter 11, the point of view shifts to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer and continues to shift to various characters for the remainder of the novel. Chapter 11 also includes a flashback to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s experience at the moment the earthquake first hit, providing readers with much-needed perspective on the other “moving parts” of this emergency situation and injecting a sense of dramatic tension and sympathy for the Palmers, who, unlike the reader, remain entirely unaware of their children’s circumstances. As Kehret shares Mr. Palmer’s thoughts, she also highlights his fears to show that he is just as afraid as Jonathan despite the benefit of being an adult. Thus, the author implies that adulthood does not exempt one from being influenced by fear in such desperate moments. Another similarity between Mr. Palmer and Jonathan is that they both face extreme exhaustion and must push on in their endeavors for the sake of their family’s safety. Also, both father and son face uncertainty and feel powerless against nature. Just as Jonathan is at nature’s mercy, so is Mr. Palmer, for he must wait until morning before a rescue helicopter can be organized to begin the search for Jonathan and Abby. By setting up these direct comparisons between her characters, Kehret highlights the similarities between Jonathan and Mr. Palmer to show that adults and children often face the same difficulties. By extension, the author implies that problems do not simply vanish with adulthood, so the more prepared that children can be to meet the world’s difficulties, the more prepared they will be to become confident and successful adults.
In a strategic injection of narrative tension, Kehret begins Chapter 12 with the ominous opening statement, “Abby never made it to Kendra” (92), and this hint of the events to come creates both uncertainty and fear. Not yet knowing how events will transpire, the reader is left to wonder what happens to Abby and is more powerfully compelled to continue reading in order to find out. Furthermore, Kehret generates an even more immediate sense of danger with Jonathan’s mishap as he swims toward shore. She highlights the many physical obstacles he faces, such as exhaustion and floating debris, to show that making it to shore will not be easy. Even as he swims, Jonathan must make important decisions such as whether to remove his shoes and how often to stop for breaks. These moment-by-moment dilemmas add to the uncertainty and excitement of the scene and emphasize just how quickly a person’s situation can change, and just how important the smallest decision can be. Additionally, Kehret utilizes this moment to insert brief elements of exposition in the form of flashbacks to Jonathan’s most powerful memories, all of which demonstrate his strength of character and the moments that have influenced his life. Additionally, the flashbacks also convey the details of Abby’s accident. Most importantly, the lesson of determination that Jonathan learned from his baseball coach inspires him to continue swimming even though everything inside him wants to quit. With this sequence, Kehret shows how past experiences shape a person’s character and can have a powerful impact on future decisions. Finally, as Jonathan is knocked unconscious by debris, Kehret ends Chapter 12 without resolving this new crisis in order to intensify the tension of the narrative.
Just as Jonathan’s underlying character is highlighted by his time alone on the river, the transition to Abby’s point of view provides a new dimension to her character and aids in her transformation from helpless bystander to active survivor. As soon as Abby stops crying, she is able to take stock of her surroundings and assess her options for herself. Kehret shows that once she stops pitying herself, Abby can start to take action to improve her own situation. Furthermore, Abby experiences an important moment of realization when she accepts the idea that she has no one to rely on but herself, and acknowledging this new reality allows her to take on a much greater sense of agency. She faces decisions that only she can make, and she must therefore find her own grit and determination to take action. When Abby does attempt to get to shore, she discovers the satisfaction and accomplishment that comes with facing her fear and walking and crawling to shore. To further intensify these important accomplishments, Kehret gives a detailed, step-by-step description of Abby’s movements in leaving the log and crawling to shore, despite the difficulty she has with certain movement. The girl’s accomplishments show that young people are often far more capable than they believe themselves to be. The emergency situation and the lack of assistance force Abby to find an inner strength and self-reliance she didn’t realize she had.
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