The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

When Sam and his mother arrive at the school, Dan is there to report for the news on the event (Sam will later keep the newspaper story in his scrapbook). The nuns do not allow Madeline to escort Sam into school, and Sister Beatrice greets him with a stern warning—“Arrogance is a sin, Mr. Hill. God punishes the arrogant. Humility will be taught, and it will be a hard lesson learned” (44). Sam’s first week in Sister Kathleen’s class passes quietly. The other students stare, but no one speaks to him. He eats lunch alone. Each night, he lies to his parents, telling them he has made new friends playing kickball. Sam does not worry about the lies, because it makes his parents so happy to believe he is thriving at school.

Sam invents ways to eat his lunch as slowly as possible so he won’t have to interact with others. One day, a boy named Ernie Cantwell sits near him and strikes up a conversation about the way Sam eats his Twinkie. Ernie, who is from Detroit, is the only Black kid at the school and the first Sam has ever met. As the two are getting acquainted, however, the school bully