Protagonist motivation
There are three protagonists in this book. They are Scooter, Crash's grandfather, Penn and eventually, Crash. Scooter is a protagonist because he is the person that Crash looks up to. Scooter tells stories to his grandchildren, cooks for them and gets involved in their lives and their interests. He is always there to support and encourage them. Scooter moves in with Crash and his family and does his best to care for them until he has a stroke. He goes to the hospital for a long time and is never the same. When he returns home, he can't walk well, speak or use his arm. Now Crash's family is taking care of Scooter. This makes Crash realize how lucky he is to have had such a great relationship with his grandfather and how close he came to losing him. This is the beginning of Crash's personality change. Penn is a protagonist because he is such a good kid. He is nice to everyone and doesn't do anything bad. He is happy with what little he has and believes that violence is unnecessary. He doesn't have toys and his most prized possession is his jar of mud from the Mississippi River. He believes it has special healing properties, so he gifted it to Scooter, to help him get better. Crash turns into a protgagonist when he reads Penn's essay about his great-grandfather. Penn has a special bond with his great-grandfather. It reminds Crash of how important his grandfather is to him and how lucky he is to have him. This the turning point in Crash's transformation. By the end of the book Crash and Penn become best friends.
Antagonist motivation
The two antagonists are Mike Deluca and Crash Coogan. Mike Deluca is an antagonist because he always wants to bully Penn. He does mean things to Penn and other kids. He squirts Penn with a water gun, when he knows Penn won't fight back because he doesn't believe in guns or violence. He also stole Penn's essay about his grandfather. Mike believes it is fun to bully Penn and he also stole Jane Forbes' turtle. He doesn't just like to be mean to Penn, he likes to be mean to anyone. Crash is another antagonist because in the beginning of the story he bullies Penn right along with Mike. At one point, Crash reads the stolen essay that Penn wrote about his grandfather and it changes his thinking. He decides to change and become more like Penn. He eventually becomes best friends with Penn.
Climax
The climax of the story starts to take place on pages 134-136. This is when Mike steals Penn's essay from his desk. He balls it up and tosses it to trash before the teacher walks in. During class Crash get curious and reads the essay. He finds out a lot about Penn and his 93 year old great-grandfather. He realizes that Penn's great-grandfather is very important to Penn. He even claims that his great-grandfather is his best friend. This starts Crash thinking about his own grandfather and how much he loves him. He realizes that he and Penn are not so different. At the end of class, he returns Penn's wrinkled essay to him. This is his first act of kindness towards Penn.
Conflicts
The biggest conflict in the book is Crash's desire to be a bully when the story begins. It then moves to him fighting with his best friend, when he decides that being a bully is no longer for him. His friend Mikes tries his hardest to remind him why they enjoy being bullies. He continues to do mean things to kids even when Crash stops. This hurts Crash's reputation because everyone thinks he is still in with Mike. Crash finally gets so angry with Mike's bullying that he has a fight with him.
Resolution
I think Crash finally, really thought about how his actions made other people feel. He thought the things he did were funny and didn't think about how they made other people sad. It took the connection between the love that Webb had for his great-grandfather and the love that Crash had for his grandfather to make him realize that what he was doing wasn't funny. I'm sure Crash wouldn't want anyone to make fun of his grandfather's handicap after he had his stroke. This is something that might have been funny to Mike and Crash before it happened to someone he loved. Sometimes having something bad happen to someone you love turns out to be sort of a good thing. This is what made Crash change to a person that other people want to be friends with, not a bully.
Somebody, Wanted, But, So
Throughout the book, Mike Deluca wanted to continue to bully people with his friend Crash. Crash started out wanting to bully people with his friend Mike, but a series of unfortunate circumstances and his grandfather illness, made him realize he needed to change his ways. So, in the end, Crash becomes a good, kind, friend to Penn Webb and not the bully Mike Deluca.