Compare an earlier moment with a later one. What changed—and what stayed complicated?
The gist
Put an earlier moment beside a later one. What is different, and what helped make it different?
Character development is a change in a person’s understanding, choices, or relationships over the course of a story.
Name an earlier belief or situation, an event, and a later response. Explain the link. Some feelings or problems can remain even when something else changes.
Build the Big Question evidence ledger →
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
What does Junior choose to show about the way he speaks? What might a drawing let him express in another way?
Chapter 1 · Printed page 5 · Read in context →
Caption: “ME IN ALL MY GLORY.”
Junior puts a difficult part of his life into a picture he controls. Compare his worries about speaking with his reasons for drawing in Chapter 1.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Why repeat the request to be loved? How do the unusual objects and the size of the words help Junior get attention?
Chapter 1 · Printed page 6 · Read in context →
Three speech bubbles repeat “LOVE ME!” with different numbers of exclamation marks.
The drawing makes a wish to reach other people visible. Use the nearby prose to explain how creating art gives Junior a way to express that wish.
Junior compares painful experiences with floods and his cartoons with lifeboats.
“I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” (Alexie 6)
What it shows: Junior sees drawing as a way to survive overwhelming experiences. The lifeboat image makes his need for expression visible.
Read in the chapterJunior considers the limits of drawing when his family needs basic necessities.
“But no matter how good I am, my cartoons will never take the place of food or money.” (Alexie 7)
What it shows: He also recognizes a limit. Drawing can help him express and carry pain while his family still needs money for basic needs.
Read in the chapterDrawing gives Junior a voice and helps him care for Rowdy. He also learns that creativity cannot remove every hardship.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
What does each arrow promise? Why does Junior draw question marks on the same side as hope?
Chapter 5 · Printed page 43 · Read in context →
Signs: “REZ,” “HOME,” “HOPE,” and “???”
The sign makes a difficult choice visible without showing a guaranteed result. Compare the familiar home direction with the uncertainty of the other path.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
How do Rowdy’s face and words show his reaction to Junior’s decision? What does Rowdy seem to think the decision means?
Chapter 7 · Printed page 53 · Read in context →
Speech bubbles: “I HATE YOU!”; “YOU SUCK!”; “You WHITE LOVER!”
Rowdy’s reaction makes one cost of the school change concrete. Compare Junior’s reason for leaving with the meaning Rowdy gives that choice.
Junior describes his parents’ wish to help him.
“And my parents love me so much that they want to help me.” (Alexie 46)
What it shows: Junior’s choice has support at home. Wanting a different school does not require him to stop loving his parents.
Read in the chapterJunior describes getting up after Rowdy punches him.
“But I had to stand eventually, and when I did, I knew that my best friend had become my worst enemy.” (Alexie 53)
What it shows: After Rowdy punches him, Junior sees a painful change in their friendship. The same transfer brings family support and a major personal cost.
Read in the chapterSchool frustration and Mr. P’s advice lead toward a transfer. His parents support him, while Rowdy experiences the choice as rejection.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Which problems repeat across the week? What does the final caption suggest about how long the difficulty will last?
Chapter 12 · Printed page 88 · Read in context →
Title: “Junior Gets to School.” Selected captions: “No gas money.”; “I hitchhike.”; “Walk home; watch TV.” Final caption: “NEXT WEEK: Start over (but in a different order!)”
The weekly pattern shows that reaching Reardan takes repeated effort. Keep the transportation problem in mind as you follow what Junior expects from other people.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Which answer tells Penelope directly what is happening? Compare that answer with the excuses and distractions in the other panels.
Chapter 17 · Printed page 128 · Read in context →
Heading: “Are You Poor?” “POSSIBLE RESPONSES:” Selected responses: “No.”; “Yes.”; “Yes, I have many.”; “LOOK OVER THERE!”; “Run away!”
Junior’s possible answers show the pull between hiding and trusting someone. Compare the fear in this cartoon with what Penelope and Roger actually do after he tells the truth.
Junior describes his continuing feeling of being an outsider.
“But nothing much changed. I was still a stranger in a strange land.” (Alexie 81)
What it shows: A kind exchange has not yet ended Junior’s isolation. This gives us a starting point for measuring later changes in trust.
Read in the chapterJunior describes Penelope’s response when he admits his poverty.
“I figured she was going to march out of my life right then. But she didn’t.” (Alexie 127)
What it shows: Junior expects Penelope to reject him after he admits his poverty. Her response challenges the fear that kept him hiding it.
Read in the chapterJunior meets rejection and care at Reardan. Friendship, study, Mary’s letters, and honesty about poverty begin changing what he expects from himself and others.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Which labels make Coach sound powerful or funny? How does his later hospital visit add to this first impression?
Chapter 20 · Printed page 137 · Read in context →
Speech bubble: “LISTEN UP.” Selected labels: “voice like Thor”; “same shorts, regardless of weather”; “hairless old-man legs.”
The portrait records how Junior first sees Coach. Coach’s later choice to keep him company gives us another kind of evidence about what this person offers Junior.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Why place the crying face inside a ring of people? Find an action at the wake that helps explain the connection you see.
Chapter 23 · Printed page 159 · Read in context →
There are no words in this cartoon.
The image places pain beside shared support. Compare this gathering with the earlier hostility toward Junior, using the wake’s events to explain what changes.
Coach offers to keep Junior company in the hospital.
“Well, how about I stay and keep you company, then?” (Alexie 148)
What it shows: Coach’s support becomes time spent together after an injury. Junior can see care in what a person actually does.
Read in the chapterJunior reflects on the shared laughter at Grandmother’s wake.
“When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.” (Alexie 166)
What it shows: At Grandmother’s wake, shared laughter exists alongside sadness. Belonging can mean carrying a loss together, not making the loss disappear.
Read in the chapterBasketball exposes divided loyalties. Family, Coach, and classmates offer different kinds of support as Junior faces injury and grief.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Why does Junior ask who he is in both gyms? How do his thoughts after winning complicate what the cheering crowd wants?
Chapter 25 · Printed page 182 · Read in context →
Panel headings: “IN THE WELLPINIT GYM” and “IN THE REARDAN GYM.” Crowd voices: “WHITE LOVER!” “Booo!!” “DESTROY THEM, ARNOLD!” “YAAY!” Junior thinks “Who am I??” in both panels.
Opposite crowd reactions leave Junior with the same question about himself. Compare his wish to defeat Wellpinit with the thoughts that make him cry after the victory.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
What does the blaming speech bubble add to this imagined book cover? What can the drawing show about Junior’s feelings, and what must we check in the prose?
Chapter 27 · Printed page 213 · Read in context →
Book title: “Burning Love.” Speech bubble: “Thanks a lot, Junior!”
The cartoon gives a blaming voice a place in Junior’s grief. Compare that feeling with Dad’s account of the fire before deciding whether Rowdy’s accusation is fair.
Junior describes his reaction after the victory.
“I was suddenly ashamed that I’d wanted so badly to take revenge on them.” (Alexie 196)
What it shows: Junior begins judging his own desire to hurt the other team. Winning has pushed him to rethink what he wanted from the game.
Read in the chapterJunior briefly separates himself from the accusation.
“Well, I didn’t kill her.” (Alexie 211)
What it shows: Junior briefly separates causing Mary’s death from feeling guilty about it. His next thoughts show how hard that distinction is to hold during grief.
Read in the chapterDefeating Wellpinit makes Junior question revenge. Mary’s death then forces him to struggle with the difference between feeling responsible and causing harm.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
What can this report card show about Junior? Which connections on his Chapter 29 list cannot fit into these rows?
Chapter 28 · Printed page 214 · Read in context →
Headings: “FINAL REPORT CARD,” “SUBJECT,” and “GRADE.”
The report card records one role Junior has built at Reardan. His list of tribes adds family, interests, and shared experiences to that picture of who he is.
LOOK AT THE DRAWING
Compare this childhood memory with the way Junior and Rowdy play at the end of Chapter 30. What has changed, and what connection remains?
Chapter 29 · Printed page 218 · Read in context →
Captions: “Boys can hold hands until they turn nine.” “Rowdy + me in 3rd grade, jumping into Turtle Lake.”
The earlier picture preserves a bond that existed before the school change. The final game and conversation let us judge how that friendship can continue while the boys follow different paths.
Junior explicitly affirms his Spokane identity.
“I realized that, sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe.” (Alexie 217)
What it shows: Junior’s wider sense of belonging includes his Spokane identity. More connections do not have to replace the first one.
Read in the chapterJunior describes the final basketball game with Rowdy.
“We didn’t keep score.” (Alexie 230)
What it shows: The final game gives Junior and Rowdy time together without making either boy’s defeat the point. Their friendship has room to continue despite unresolved differences.
Read in the chapterAs the year ends, Junior recognizes overlapping connections while remaining Spokane. Playing with Rowdy without keeping score suggests that being together matters more than defeating each other.
The gist
Junior starts out feeling trapped and ends the year seeing more ways to belong. He still has hurt to carry.
Junior’s character arc moves toward a more complex understanding of identity, support, and responsibility. His growth involves revising judgments, not simply becoming popular or winning games.
Track change by comparing what Junior believes before and after an event. He moves from expecting rejection to recognizing real support, and from wanting revenge to considering Rowdy’s pain. Loss complicates that growth and can bring old fears back. At the end, friendship and connection remain possible without a promise that poverty, racism, grief, or disagreement have disappeared.
Rowdy reads leaving as betrayal.
He sees that Junior still loves home and imagines him traveling.
He calls Junior a nomad and reconnects through basketball.