Chapter 11 Summary

Vinnie is bored, listening to bland platitudes about children at a professional symposium and after fat, pompous Dr. Smithers exceeds his time slot, she wants to refute his thesis and declare children ought to be left as unique individuals rather than being sanded down (like her and her colleagues) by the nasty Contemporary World. Vinnie muses about how refreshing it would be if all the scholars in the room could turn into young adolescents and the undergraduates to babies. All would share a single thought: why am I sitting here listening to this nonsense? All would drop to the floor and commence playing, scribbling, building and demolishing with shrieks of mirth. The very idea of transforming children's literature into a scholarly discipline invites divine retribution. Vinnie's profession pricks her conscience. Watching Maria Jones and smug, cliché-rich Dr. Smithers in action, ripping...