54 pages • 1 hour read
Graham McNameeAcceleration
Fiction | Novel | YA | 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. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 13-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
The previous fall, Duncan and his father had a talk. Upon noticing Duncan walking around “like a zombie” (77), Duncan’s father told him about one of John F. Kennedy’s Secret Service guards. Fifteen years later, the guard still blamed himself for failing to save Kennedy. Duncan’s father understood this guilt well:
It doesn’t go away—that thing, the belief or whatever, that one day you’re going to be a hero. All guys think that. It’s bred into you. Every movie you ever see tells you that one day you’ll get your chance. It doesn’t go away, either. I’m still waiting for mine (79).
He told Duncan to let go of the past as it would destroy him (and was worrying his mother). Duncan remembered getting caught during a toilet burglary with Wayne, his mother’s disappointment being the worst part. He says the “head doctors and the pills” (80) didn’t work.
Chapter 14 Summary
Residents of the Jungle are desperate for cool weather and take refuge in the Ignatius Howard Public Library, the “Igloo”—Duncan and his friends included. Duncan picks a book called Death: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by former FBI profiler Mason Lucas.
