59 pages • 1 hour read
The Thing About Georgie
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Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying and ableism.
An unnamed narrator guides the reader in an exercise, telling the reader to reach over their head with their right arm to touch their left ear. The narrator then informs the reader that Georgie cannot do this and that they just want the reader to know.
Georgie, whose full name is George Washington Bishop, sits in his fourth-grade class, with his bully, Jeanette Ann Wallace, or “Jeanie the Meanie,” sitting behind him. Jeanie has always given Georgie a hard time about his short stature or big head. She’s bullied him since kindergarten. One of the ways she bugs him is by tapping on his shoulder with her pencil throughout the class. Georgie tries to ignore her. It’s the last day before Christmas break, and he just wants to get through class.
Several seats in front of Georgie, his best friend, Andy Moretti, drops his pencil. He taps it on the ground twice—a signal. Georgie volunteers to solve the problem on the board. He must raise his hand extra high so that the teacher will notice him. There is a stool in front of the board just for him. When Georgie finishes, he accepts a note from Andy as he passes Andy’s desk. The note says that Andy’s mother will pick them up today. Jeanie asks what the note is about, and Georgie ignores her.
At the end of class, Georgie fetches his coat from his coat hook, specially installed a foot lower than the others just for him. He doesn’t think about the stool or the coat hanger often—they are just facts of his life because he has dwarfism.
Chapter 2 Summary
The narrator returns, asking the reader to now sit on the ground, pull their knees to their chest, and rest their head on their knees. The narrator muses about how relaxing it is and then adds that Georgie cannot do this. It doesn’t bother Georgie, but he couldn’t do it if he wanted to.
Georgie and Andy celebrate no more homework. They walk dogs after school. The boys have a dog-walking business to earn extra money for Christmas gifts and comic books. Georgie came up with the idea. Andy talks about a video game he wants to buy. Georgie doesn’t play video games because he has a hard time working the controller.
The boys walk six dogs between the two of them, with Georgie handling the smaller dogs because the bigger ones are dangerous to walk at his size. Andy floats the idea of adding another person to the business so that they can expand. He suggests Russ, the new kid in school. Andy has already talked to Russ, who wants to help. Andy likes Russ, but Georgie doesn’t know him. Andy says that he hung out with Russ while Georgie was sick recently. Georgie immediately decides that he doesn’t want Russ in the business. He says that it’s not a good idea because they would have to split the money three ways. Andy sounds disappointed, and the boys go quiet.
Georgie thinks about changing his mind about Russ joining them. Before he can say as much, it’s time for them to turn back. They joke around. Andy seems to have forgotten the Russ idea, so Georgie maintains his silence.
Chapter 3 Summary
The narrator now instructs the reader to find a tape measure and measure the distance from the floor to the doorknob of their door, to the light switch, to the bathroom sink, and to the kitchen table. The narrator asks the reader to then measure themselves against a wall and make a second marker at 42 inches. Georgie is 42 inches tall. The narrator asks the reader to consider Georgie’s height compared to all the measurements they’ve taken and keep that in mind as they read.
Georgie comes home to his mother teaching piano, so he goes quickly to his room. He lies on his bed and thinks about what he might want to get for his parents for Christmas. Georgie’s walls contain a music-themed poem that his parents wrote for him before he was born. The poem explores all the possible instruments that an orchestra player might pick up and suggests that baby Georgie will eventually choose one and join their song. Georgie likes to come up with additional rhymes for the poem, but he never thinks they’re as good as what his parents wrote. He considers writing them a poem for Christmas.
Georgie’s parents are professional musicians in a symphony orchestra, so classical music has always been part of Georgie’s life. Georgie goes to the living room to listen to his parents practice their instruments. He fantasizes about drawing a detailed portrait of his parents playing their instruments and presenting it to them for Christmas. Georgie’s fingers are stubby, which makes it hard for him to hold a pencil properly, making drawing much more difficult. He fantasizes about the strokes he would make with his pencil if he could draw his parents.
At dinner, Georgie tells his parents that the school will begin working on the fourth-grade play after the break. This year’s play is about the American presidents. Georgie’s parents want him to volunteer because his full name is George Washington Bishop. His parents wanted him to have a strong name so that he would always carry a great person within him, pushing him to be his best. Georgie knows all there is to know about George Washington and would love to play Washington in the school play, but he worries about volunteering because he looks nothing like Washington.
Georgie’s parents have an important announcement. They inform Georgie that he is going to be a big brother.
Chapter 4 Summary
Georgie eats lunch at the kitchen table while his crush, seventh-grader Allison Housman, has a piano lesson with Georgie’s mother. Georgie thinks that Allison is so pretty that it isn’t fair to the other seventh graders. Allison isn’t a great piano player, but that doesn’t bother Georgie. Allison says hello and goodbye to Georgie as she leaves the lesson.
Georgie’s mother makes tea and asks him if he’s okay. Georgie nods, unable to speak easily while eating his peanut butter sandwich. Georgie’s mother has asked him if he’s okay many times since the previous night’s announcement. She encouraged him to ask questions. Georgie didn’t have any, but he made some up at dinner because he thought it was expected of him. The baby is due in May, and Georgie’s parents reassured him that the baby is “nice and healthy” (30), according to tests. Georgie thinks that they meant to say that the baby is “normal.” Georgie decides that he doesn’t care if his parents want another, “perfectly normal-looking, nice and healthy” kid (30). Georgie finishes his lunch. Georgie’s mother still worries about whether he’s okay.
Chapter 5 Summary
Georgie’s mother drives him to Andy’s house. As they leave Georgie’s house, a car slows down so that its driver can stare at Georgie. Being stared at is a common occurrence for Georgie, and he’s gotten used to it. He knows that he’d stare too, at least at first, if he saw a person who looked different. Sometimes he wishes that people would stare long enough to get their fill and never stare again.
The narrator interrupts the story for another exercise. They present a drawing of Georgie and ask the reader to stare for 30 seconds, soak up all the details, and then move on.
Andy’s mother calls him Andrea, which is a traditional Italian name for boys. Georgie recalls becoming friends with Andy after standing up to Jeanie the Meanie for mocking Andy’s name on the first day of kindergarten.
Andy is packing up his room. He needs to make space because his grandmother from Italy is moving in with Andy’s family and they do not have a spare bedroom. Andy is unhappy about having to share a room with her. Georgie shares that his parents are having another baby. Andy agrees that Georgie’s situation also stinks. They speculate that the baby will have the guest room at Georgie’s house, which is where Georgie and Andy like to play a game they call Lava Wars.
Georgie and Andy play a board game and help decorate Andy’s family’s Christmas tree. Andy’s and Georgie’s families decorate their houses completely differently, but Georgie enjoys helping because he feels like he’s part of Andy’s family. Georgie and Andy like to make up silly Christmas songs. Georgie eats dinner at Andy’s house.
On Sunday, Georgie’s family decorates their tree. The family rule is that the littlest person puts the star on the tree. Georgie’s father lifts him to place the star. Georgie realizes that next year, he will not be the littlest. He hates the idea of losing his place to a new baby. Then, he realizes that he’ll eventually be the littlest again, and that thought is even worse. Georgie is smaller than most six-year-olds, and he hates the idea of watching his little sibling grow larger and larger each day, eventually outgrowing him.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The first five chapters of The Thing About Georgie introduce the main characters of the novel and the primary conflicts that the titular protagonist, fourth-grader Georgie Bishop, faces. The novel’s title alludes to how everyone has their own “thing,” which Georgie identifies. In doing so, the author establishes the theme of The Complex Nature of Individuals, which emphasizes the unique traits of various characters. For example, “[t]he thing about Jeanette Wallace, Georgie th[inks], [i]s that she [i]s mean” (2), and “[t]he thing about Andy Moretti, Georgie figure[s], [i]s that he [i]s Italian” (4). The first chapter ends by completing the title’s thought, explaining, “[T]he thing was, Georgie Bishop was a dwarf” (6). The wording around Andy’s and Jeanie’s “things” highlights that the idea that everyone has a “thing” stems from Georgie’s perspective on people. The novel also uses this phrasing to introduce other key characters, like how “[t]he thing about Georgie’s parents [i]s that they [a]re musicians” (19), and “[t]he thing about Allison Housman, Georgie realize[s], [i]s that she [i]s the prettiest girl in the seventh grade” (26). Through these expressions designating the “thing” about each character, the novel both introduces the main characters and develops Georgie’s character through his perceptions of the people in his life.
Georgie’s dwarfism is a main facet of the story, and the novel highlights the ways that his disability impacts his life. This begins in the first pages of the novel when an unnamed first-person narrator addresses the reader directly before the story begins. The unnamed narrator guides the reader in an exercise in touching their left ear with their right arm to make a point about how there are many things that Georgie cannot do that the reader might take for granted. This narrator reappears at the beginning of Chapters 2 and 3 to provide the reader with more perspective on the physical challenges Georgie experiences because of his dwarfism, like the inability to rest his head on his knees and the fact that everything in the world is built for people much taller than him. This narrator returns in Chapter 5 after Georgie sees a driver staring at him as he leaves his house. Georgie wishes that “maybe if those people stared just a little bit longer […] they’d never have to stare at him again” (34). The narrator returns after this moment to encourage the reader to look at a drawing of Georgie for 30 seconds. The narrator then asks, “Done looking? Getting bored just staring like that?” to emphasize that Georgie is nothing worth staring at forever (35). The juxtaposition of Georgie’s desire for people to stare until they “kn[o]w he [i]sn’t that interesting” with the narrator’s interjection develops the narrator as an ally of Georgie (34), who advocates on behalf of Georgie and emphasizes the way people perceive him as “other” due to his disability.
These first five chapters also establish the novel’s primary conflicts. At the end of Chapter 3, Georgie’s parents announce that they are having a baby and that Georgie will be a big brother. Georgie struggles to conceptualize what this means for him throughout Chapters 4 and 5, but several key moments develop his conflicted feelings about the incoming baby. In Chapter 4, Georgie recalls how the conversation proceeded at dinner the previous evening and how his parents told him not to worry because the tests reported that the baby is “nice and healthy” (30). Georgie wonders, “[W]hat did they mean, nice and healthy? Did that mean the baby was normal?” (30). His dwarfism frames his interpretation of his parents’ announcement, and his reaction—“If his parents wanted to have another kid, a perfectly normal-looking, nice and healthy one, great. He didn’t care” (30)—illustrates that the announcement has stirred up some of Georgie’s insecurities about his condition. Another key moment is Georgie’s subsequent realization at the end of Chapter 5; first, he won’t be the littlest when the baby comes along, and second, he will return to the littlest again one day. The announcement of Georgie’s baby sibling becomes a source of conflict for Georgie as he begins to think of what that means about his place in his family.
The other main conflict that the author introduces in these chapters occurs between Georgie and his best friend, Andy. This establishes the theme of Prevailing Through the Hardships of Friendship, something with which Georgie will contend throughout the narrative. Georgie becomes jealous when Andy says that he’s been hanging out with the new kid, Russ. The narrative illustrates this in the way Georgie shuts down Andy’s proposal to bring Russ into their dog-walking business. Georgie’s insecurities with Andy and Russ’s friendship become another source of conflict as the novel progresses.
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