Summary

Chapter 1 is titled "Tobacco." The opening statement is that every child “deserves a super-hero.” Elsa is seven-years-old, and Granny is 77. Elsa knows that she is not a very good seven-year-old because she is different. The headmaster at her school says she should “fall in line.” Some people say Elsa is “very grown up for her age” but no one says that about Granny. Granny is prone to do what she wants, such as when she shot people with paint balls from her balcony.

Elsa and Granny are in a small room in the police station when the novel opens. Granny was in the hospital, but she and Elsa left the hospital and broke into the zoo. Elsa says she warned Granny not to climb the fence and that she should not have thrown animal feces at the police. The officer also says that...