69 pages • 2 hours read
Jason ReynoldsLook Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A 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.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Water Booger Bears”
Jasmine Jordan and her best friend Terrence Jumper, also known as TJ, leave their last class of the day together. Jasmine and TJ have been best friends since they were six years old and “were the only kids who lived on their block” (2). Jasmine teases TJ about the boogers in his nose. Jasmine has just returned to school two days ago after having “been gone for a while” (3).
TJ talks to Jasmine about his research on boogers and how “boogers are basically water and dust” (5). TJ shares his theory that human beings, mostly made of water and created from the dust of the earth by God, are boogers, too. Jasmine laughs at TJ’s wild theory and “appreciated the fact that he always made her laugh whether she wanted to or not” (7).
This school year has been tough for Jasmine. Her parents separated and her father left the family home. After this turmoil, Jasmine began feeling ill from her sickle cell anemia, “a blood disease since birth […] which can affect almost every part of the body. Organs, joints, even vision” (8). Jasmine’s hands and feet became swollen and “her muscles felt like they’d become wood” (9). Jasmine was unable to return to school for a month. Now since her return to Latimer Middle School two days earlier, Jasmine has “to figure out how she was going to catch up on her work” (9).
TJ and Jasmine begin their walk home together. They turn onto their street, Marston Street, “a street lined with houses that her mother always said had been around for a long time” (10). As TJ and Jasmine continue their debate over whether humans are boogers, TJ compares something their science teacher showed them in class to his “old mother” (12). TJ now lives with Ms. Macy, whom he calls “my new mother” (12). Jasmine refuses to call herself a booger and compares herself to a water bear, a microscopic animal they learned about in science class. Jasmine shares that she thinks she is a water bear because “it might be the toughest living thing in the world. In the universe maybe” (12).
They finally reach TJ’s house, which is “small and wooden like it had been built without machines. No bulldozer or anything like that. Just human hands and love and hammers and nails and more love” (13). They sit on the steps of TJ’s house and continue their debate. The two agree “that maybe they could be both” and decide upon the name “water booger bears” (14).
Chapter 1 Analysis
Chapter 1 introduces the first friendship of the novel and follows Jasmine and TJ as they travel home after a day of school at Latimer Middle School. Chapter 1 serves as a template for the basic outline of subsequent chapters. Each chapter documents a journey in the transition time between school and home. Jasmine and TJ begin their conversation about boogers directly following the end of the school day and carry their conversation through the streets of their neighborhood until they reach their block of Marston Street.
The topic of boogers illustrates the humor of Jasmine and TJ’s age group. This vignette and the novel’s subsequent vignette feature central characters from Latimer Middle School. Jasmine and TJ’s different viewpoints regarding TJ’s theory that humans are boogers reflect their differences in personality, background, and demeanor. TJ is confident and unafraid to place himself in the center of any situation. Despite his lack of singing ability, he “always asked Mrs. Bronson, the choir director to let him sing solos even though his voice was all over the place” (6). Jasmine is more cautious and, although she too is not a great singer, “she knew it and would never think to ask for a solo” (6).
Jasmine’s more cautious nature emerges from her difficult beginning to the school year, which has left her navigating her parents’ separation and her sickle cell anemia. While Jasmine has built a tough exterior to endure these struggles, TJ serves as a balancing force for Jasmine as he makes her laugh and is “always there to chip some of the hard off” (7). In her argument against TJ’s claim about boogers, Jasmine sees herself as a water bear and admires the water bear’s ability to survive and withstand difficult conditions. Unlike Jasmine, TJ is unnerved by the invisible quality of the water bear and finds comfort in his ability to “smash and smear and disappear” things that he can see (13). Not being able to see water bears makes TJ feel out of control.
It is not only Jasmine who struggles with a disrupted family unit. TJ briefly alludes to his past in foster care. When thinking about one of his past foster parents, he shudders “like something shot through his body” (12). Unlike Jasmine, TJ is no longer in the middle of these struggles as he has been adopted by the loving Ms. Macy six years earlier. His home is one that is “small and wooden” but built with love (13). In the end, Jasmine and TJ work together to form a new theory that blends both of their views of humanity. They create the new title of water booger bears to illustrate this union. Reynolds makes this the title of this chapter to capture the significance of these different perspectives on life coming together to portray the complex and nuanced nature of humanity. Jasmine and TJ’s chapter sets the course for the remaining parts of the novel, which will explore these multifaceted views of humanity.
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