Summary

Chapter 9 is titled “Dickens.” Dorothy got a secretarial job at a hospital, and they moved. Money was a constant worry. One day, Dorothy was afraid of a spider. Moehringer killed it, a reminder he was “the man of the house,” which renewed his worries. Moehringer discovered a lot of books in his grandparents' basement. His mother had instilled a love of reading, beginning with flash cards when he was very young. The printed word “organized my world, put order to chaos, divided things neatly into black and white” (63). He loved The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and felt a kinship to Mowgli with his adoptive parents, Baloo and Bagheera. From Moehringer's perspective, both Baloo and Bagheera wanted Mowgli to become a lawyer because they wanted him to “learn the Law of the Jungle” (64). He also loved Minute Biographies, reassured by the fact that...