67 pages • 2 hours read
Kate AlbusA Place to Hang the Moon
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A 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 19-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
As January nears, Mrs. Müller decides to go to Mrs. Griffith’s to fetch the children’s’ things. William offers, but she is determined to take the responsibility of caring for his siblings off his shoulders. When she returns, she is emotional about not stepping in sooner to remove the children from Mrs. Griffith’s neglect.
She picked up a paper on the way back with a picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral cloaked in smoke on the front page. William panics and must leave the room; Edmund stays with him silently while he works through the worst of the panic. The two discuss how you can tell when you’ve found a good mother and decide that “you know you’ve got the right mum when you find one that thinks you hung the moon” (257).
When school returns, the children reconvene with their peers. Frances tries to elicit compliments from William about her new dress, while Hugh gives Edmund a piece of chocolate in payment for the chocolate Edmund gave him on their first day in town. Miss Carr catches Edmund calling her “Carr-buncle” and assigns him to write 500 lines of the definition of “carbuncle” for homework.
After William and Anna go to bed, Mrs. Müller stays up with Edmund while he writes his lines. She advises him kindly on how to stay out of trouble when someone seems to have it out for you, and he encourages her to stand up to the townspeople who insult her. Before Edmund goes to bed, she gives him a hug, which is an entirely new and wonderful experience for him.
Chapter 20 Summary
In February, Mrs. Müller receives a letter from Switzerland with news that her husband died in Berlin. Though she had resigned herself to his disappearance, the news of his death still hits her hard. The children insist on caring for her as she has for them.
After several days of mourning, she agrees to play games with the children. William lets it slip that he is now 13; his birthday was a month ago. Mrs. Müller is aghast; she orders him upstairs so that she, Edmund, and Anna can prepare a birthday party. She quietly considers Edmund and Anna as they say that this will be the best party William has ever had.
William, unused to things being done for him, is immensely grateful for the warmth shown by Mrs. Müller and the happiness of his two siblings. After the four eat cake, Mrs. Müller surprises William by giving him her husband’s old bicycle. While William is surprised and happy, the siblings reveal they were never taught to ride bikes. Mrs. Müller is astounded at the novelty of children never being taught to ride bikes and seems silently aware about what this indicates regarding the siblings’ upbringing. She resolves to teach them herself.
The three play around with the bicycle for hours before drinking tea by the fire. William thanks her again, and she asks the siblings to start calling her by her first name, Nora.
Chapter 21 Summary
As February transitions to March, the children help Mrs. Müller prepare her garden beds for spring planting. Edmund has the idea to plant a garden at school to help Mrs. Müller “make friends” (280). She agrees, saying she will petition the council if Edmund asks Miss Carr, which she hopes will begin to mend their tense relationship.
Several days later, Edmund prepares to broach the subject with Miss Carr. She seems doubtful when he begins talking, but as he explains that the garden can provide produce to the foster families and poor village families, she finds the idea practical as both a war effort and a way to help the relationship between village and evacuees. She gives her approval for the plan.
The next day, the children wait for Mrs. Müller to return from the council. When she arrives, she says the council agreed after much finagling and an intervention from a retired schoolteacher.
On the first Saturday in March, the evacuees meet at school to turn the dirt over and plant seeds. William is building a trellis when Frances joins him. Her flirting makes him increasingly uncomfortable. Mrs. Müller intervenes, asking Frances to draw up maps of the garden instead, to William’s relief.
Several days later, the seeds begin to sprout. As the seeds grow, the townspeople seem to warm to the evacuees. Mrs. Griffith walks past and Anna offers to bring her a parcel of vegetables when they are ready. Jack and Simon threaten to tear up the garden, but Edmund defends the plot.
Miss Carr privately tells Mrs. Müller that the garden is such a success that it has changed her opinion of William, Edmund, and Anna. Mrs. Müller confesses that the children have changed her life for the better and she does not know what she will do when the children return to London. She says she believes that they could “hang the moon in the very heavens” if they wanted to (296). From around the corner, the three siblings hear everything.
Chapter 22 Summary
Upon hearing this phrase, the children immediately know that this means they are meant to stay with Mrs. Müller, which they have secretly known for a long time. At supper, she notices their quietness and asks what’s wrong. William keenly feels the pressure of his last and biggest responsibility: asking Mrs. Müller if she will be their guardian.
He explains haltingly that their grandmother was absent for much of their lives and they had been left in the care of nannies and housekeepers. Edmund, fed up with the slow pace of the story, blurts out that their grandmother died the previous summer and they were sent north to find new guardianship. They tell her they think she is meant to be their mother.
Mrs. Müller is emotional that they spent so long without a caring guardian. She immediately agrees, moved to tears. She hugs the children fiercely, and all of them cry with happiness. She thanks the children for improving her life. The children feel lighter than they have in years. The new family settles down by the fire for the next of many cozy evenings together.
Chapters 19-22 Analysis
These final chapters draw the central conflicts of the narrative to a close and emphasize the growth of the four main characters: Mrs. Müller, William, Edmund, and Anna.
Mrs. Müller and the children exhibit The Meaning of Family in the ways they influence each other for the better. Before meeting the children, Mrs. Müller had her “head down quite a bit more than necessary” (263). She largely did not defend against or protest the villagers’ opinion of her, preferring to fade into the background and not draw notice. Having someone else to care for makes Mrs. Müller bolder for both her own sake and the children’s. Edmund especially helps her just as much as she helps him. While she gives him advice for staying out of trouble with Miss Carr, he gives her advice on speaking up for herself. He tells her that she “ought not to let Mrs. Norton and her lot treat [her] the way they do. [Mrs. Müller’s] done nothing wrong and [she] should let everyone know it” (263). Edmund makes a joke about his own tendency to defend himself in too-extreme ways—the snake he put in the Forrester twins’ bed—to emphasize to Mrs. Müller how she is not defending herself enough. This gives Mrs. Müller the validation and support she has been lacking, and it gives Edmund something healthy to focus on. Additionally, his respect for Mrs. Müller makes him more likely to listen to her about behaving, which enables him to begin repairing his relationship with Miss Carr.
Edmund also begins to realize the sacrifices William has made for them and adjusts his behavior to support William more, showing his growing maturity. When William panics at the newspaper picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral standing among the wreckage of the Blitz, Edmund sits with him in the bathroom, offering silent support. William finds “Edmund’s uncharacteristically quiet presence” surprisingly calming (256). Thanks to their experiences, Edmund has learned when to be bold and brash and when to be quiet and supportive, and he puts this into practice for his beloved older brother.
William began the novel as the archetypal older brother, taking on a parental role. While Edmund must learn to grow up, William has grown up before his time. Mrs. Müller helps take this role away from William, allowing him to be the child he is. She affirms his sacrifices often by telling him, “I believe there is little you can’t manage” and that he has “managed far more than anyone ought to” (252). She also steps in and takes away that responsibility, urging him to rest while she acts as the parent the Pearces should have had all along. William, who has never had the luxury of rest, “[can’t] remember a time of not wanting to hear” those words (252), and hearing them from Mrs. Müller confirms for him that she is the mother they need.
Mrs. Müller gives William a used red bicycle for his birthday and, upon learning he never learned how to ride, teaches the children herself the same evening. When William rides the bicycle, the “icy wind on his face [smells] clean and wild, and the gleeful shouts of his audience [are] nearly drowned by the thrum of his own heart” (279). The freedom William feels while riding the bicycle, “like flying,” represents the freedom he has now that he has been released from the responsibility of caring for his siblings. For the first time, he can think about himself and his own joy.
When daydreaming about the perfect family, the children demonstrate The Importance of Stories by concocting storybook versions of the perfect mother. This theme culminates in Mrs. Müller perfectly representing the mother they all dreamed of. William’s storybook mother would relieve the burden of parenting his siblings; Mrs. Müller immediately does so. Edmund’s storybook mother allows him a horse and a rifle and provides him with good food. More than any other adult in the novel, Mrs. Müller understands Edmund’s blunt and adventurous nature. When Mrs. Müller prepares to go to Mrs. Griffith’s to get the children’s things, Edmund warns her that Mrs. Griffith is a “bad egg.” She teasingly asks him, “Should I bring my pistol?” (253). She is joking, but in doing so, she is speaking to Edmund in a language he understands, which makes Edmund “marvel” at her.
Anna’s idea of a perfect mother is more traditionally maternal and caring, someone who could fill the role William has done his best to fill for her. William comforts Anna, takes her hand, accepts her hugs, and helps her understand large words. Mrs. Müller fills these roles seamlessly, relieving William of responsibility and perfectly providing for Anna’s wants and needs.
With their immediate needs met, the children are able to display their innate empathy. Driven by a need to show their appreciation for Mrs. Müller and to give her the love and support she has shown them, the Pearce siblings decide to tackle the Social Prejudice within their community in a way that will center the “outsiders” in a positive light. Edmund is the one who suggests the victory garden as a community event, which shows his maturity, given that he was bullied and framed by the villagers. Though he has not necessarily forgiven the Forresters—nor will he allow them to cause harm—he does not let that hinder the idea of bridging the gaps within the community. Anna similarly shows her maturity when she sees Mrs. Griffith and her four children, one of whom is clearly sick. Seeing the child launch into fits of coughing, “Anna [feels] a sad sort of ache” (293). Even though she experienced abuse at Mrs. Griffith’s house, Anna has compassion for the things that contribute to the Griffith family’s suffering that are beyond their control. Anna offers to bring a parcel of vegetables to their house when the crops are ready, one of the first moments in which Anna proactively offers to provide for others. She “[feels] a sort of glow” as she realizes how glad it makes her to do so (294), which illustrates her kindness and growth.
Though a single act cannot instantly reshape the views and behaviors of a community, the garden does make an impact. It inspires Miss Carr to reconsider her judgment of the Pearce children, and her conversation with Mrs. Müller is the catalyst for the children’s adoption. Though the Pearces and Mrs. Müller begin and end the novel as fundamentally good, supportive, and loving people, the progression of their characters shows how important support and community are and suggests that acts of kindness can make change.
