7th Most Important Thing

14-16

Arthur goes back to school for the first time since his probation. Mr. Hampton writes a quote for Arthur. Groovy Jim and Arthur try to figure out what the quote means and Groovy Jim gives his explanation of the quote from his perspective but Arthur is unsure about what it truly means.

4

Arthur has a flashback to the day he threw the brick. He remembers realizing that his mother threw out all of his father's belongings shortly after he passed away. Arthur went to the garbage in a panic to try and find his dad's hat when he noticed the Junk Man coming down the street wearing it. He remembers feeling furious that the Junk Man would take his dad's hat, which caused him to throw the brick right at him.

3

Arthur learns the name of the man who he hit with the brick was Mr. James Hampton and that Mr. Hampton (the Junk man) is in the courthouse. He tells the judge the reason he threw the brick at the Junk man was because of his father's hat.

1

Arthur purposely threw a brick at the Junk Man's head.The story makes headlines in Arthur's town.

8-10

Arthur reports to Officer Billie for the first time. She is very strict and will accept no excuses from Arthur. She tells him to report for duty on Saturday morning and give him the address. On Saturday, Arthur struggles to find the address and goes into Groovy Jim's Tattoo Parlor looking for help. Groovy Jim directs Arthur to the garage where he finds Mr. Hampton's list of the Seven Most Important Things.

6-7

Arthur returns home and is now grateful for many things in his life. He appreciates his home, his room, and his family since returning from Juvenile Hall. Arthur has a flashback of his father's death and funeral.Mr. Hampton returns Arthur's father's hat without the wings.

2

Arthur waits in court to hear what his sentence will be.

42-45

Arthur went to Groovy Jim to tell him if anything happens to Mr. Hampton's work. Groovy Jim called Arthur and Arthur ran to the garage and found out that everything has been moved. Arthur screamed and got very upset but they hadn't paid rent for the garage. Groovy Jim was very caring and offered to give $50 on the spot so they could have the garage for another month. That was all the money that Groovy Jim had. Arthur had promised to save Mr. Hampton's project and he wanted to stick with his promise. Arthur had told his mom about saving the garage, Arthur had told his mom what he has been doing for Mr. Hampton. Arthur was very nasty and said some words that he shouldn't have and his mom left and went to her room crying. Arthur apologized. Arthur's mom gave Arthur his birthday money early for the garage but he still needed $30 more. She keeps it in a tissue box so she doesn't forget because Arthur makes her cry a lot. When he was at the principal he noticed the sixth most important thing a coffee can and he saw the coffee can it was being used for a donation. Arthur got an idea from it.

21-24

During lunch, Arthur needed to get something from his locker and he usually didn't go to his locker during lunch because older kids would stand around. As he became close to his locker he saw the jocks and got a little scared. He noticed that they were throwing basketballs into the garbage can. Soon, Arthur realized that a person was in the garbage can. Arthur ran at them and scared them away and got the kid out of the garbage can. His name was Squeak. The next day, the principal didn't believe Arthur and said that Arthur did it. Squeak told the principal that Arthur helped him.

11-13

He picked up the wrong things for his first day of work. He asks Groovy Jim if he has any of the stuff on the list of Seven Most Important Things. After completing his first day, he gets a phone call from officer Billie and she tells him to pick up the EXACT things that the Junk man tells him to or else back to juvie.

25-29

Mr. Hampton's list has changed. It wasn't the seven most important things anymore. It was to find a throne chair. When Arthur showed up at the garage something was unusual, the garage was open which was strange. Arthur found James Hampton lying on the floor in pain. James was acting weird and saying that Arthur saved him and James said he was ready to go to heaven. James announced that he was building heaven this whole entire time. They called the ambulance.

40-41

Arthur and Barbara were both sick. Roger and Arthur got along we'll and Roger would fix Arthur's things that were broken. Arthur was researching crowns for Mr. Hampton. Arthur brought home things from the junk in Mr. Hampton's neighborhood. The next day at work for Mr. Hampton.... They sat outside together and began to talk and drank ice tea together. Mr. Hampton kept telling Arthur to save the project and things about the project and when he goes that Arthur will take care of it. Mr. Hampton also said that when Arthur threw the brick he saved him. Three days later.. Mr. Hampton had died. Roger invited him to a baseball game to clear his mind and he said no. Barbara made drawings for him as well. Arthur was very hurt on the inside.

46-48

Arthur and Squeak decided to make a donation box to keep Mr. Hampton's project. The scattered the coffee cans everywhere. They had found out that Squeak's dad is a newspaper truck delivery. Squeak had put a coffee can in the newspaper office. They do not know that Squeak and Arthur are close friends. Arthur had no chance but to call the reporter because he was interested in the story and they had no other option. Arthur was explaining to the reporter about Mr. Hampton's project. The reporter wants to come and see and take some pictures of Mr. Hampton's project. The reporter asked questions and is going to get the editors to run the piece. They said it was a pretty impressive piece.

37-39

Arthur decided that he was not going to quit on Mr. Hampton and he is not going to go back to juvie. Arthur wasn't the only one keeping secrets, his mom was to she had a boyfriend and didn't tell Arthur. Arthur was shocked and very upset. Roger wasn't the person that Arthur thought he would be. They all ate dinner together on Friday to meet Roger. Arthur missed his own father. Arthur tried to sound interesting because he was being very quiet so he asked some questions. Arthur went to work for Mr. Hampton and it brought back memories for Arthur's father, Thomas. Arthur kept blabbering about his father to Mr. Hampton. Mr. Hampton seemed interesting and asked questions.

33-36

Arthur didn't want to got to school and he couldn't stop thinking about Mr. Hampton. People were starting with Squeak at the lunch table, they were throwing things. Arthur was going to say something but instead Squeak stopped him and stuck up for himself because Arthur already stuck up for him. Arthur told Squeak about what Mr. Hampton was building and insisted of coming with Arthur to help him. Squeak came with Arthur and they found that Mr. Hampton was out of the hospital. They all started talking and Mr. Hampton didn't mind that Arthur brought a friend with him. They all began to work. Arthur was smashing mirrors and Squeak was getting nervous because when you smash a mirror it means bad luck for seven years.

17

Arthur finds many things from the list of The Seven Most Important Things. At the end of the chapter he thought to himself that maybe the Seven Most Important Things are not as useless as he thought they were in the first place. He has memories from when his father was alive when he sees the light bulbs from the Christmas tree and he realizes that his father won't be there for Christmas. Also, when he sees the tv dinner trays he remembers when him and his father used to sit down and eat together.

18-20

Arthur gets 2 weeks off from his probation for Christmas. Arthur was shocked when Officer Billie came to his door to share the news and gave him a caramel popcorn, which he says was very good. Arthur made his mom a christmas gift which was a flower pot, which he found and fixed it up. Arthur got some of his dad's coins and he couldn't look at them, it upset him. When Arthur went to the garage to see if Mr. Hampton was there which he wasn't because instead Mr. Hampton came looking for Arthur and Barbara saw him and they started talking and Barbara got the silver temperature knob which Arthur had collected for Mr. Hampton.

5

Right before Arthur's sentencing, Mr. Hampton requested to speak to the judge privately. After one hour, the judge told Arthur that instead of going back to juvie, the Junk Man requested that Arthur work with him every day until his arm heals.

49-53

The article came out in the newspaper. Officer Billie knew right away and wanted to know all the details. The donation money was not enough. Arthur's mom was very proud of him. Some people went to the newspaper office to make small donations to the project after reading the article. Their donations were less than $30. Several visitors had asked for a tour. A few people from the art museum were interested, Arthur is going to give them a tour. They are going to talk it over with the board and then will get back to Arthur. For Arthur's birthday, Roger got them tickets to a baseball game at D.C. Stadium. Officer Billie gave Arthur a call and the museum would like to keep the artwork for storage collection until it was ready to be shown. Arthur was happy. Everyone was excited that Mr. Hampton's artwork was going to National Collection of Fine Arts. Arthur stopped by the garage for the last time, it felt like a different life.

30-32

They carried him in the ambulance and Arthur went inside the ambulance with James. Arthur got stuck at the hospital because his mom wouldn't be able to pick him up and he didn't have Squeak's number so he had to call Officer Billie. Arthur didn't want to talk to James Hampton but instead they began talking. James Hampton was telling Arthur about what he was building and he gave Arthur the keys to the garage to keep an eye on the masterpiece for Mr. Hampton. When Officer Billie showed up she asked Arthur if he wanted food, Arthur couldn't help but say yes. They got to a diner and sat down and started to talk. Officer Billie began talking to Arthur on how James Hampton does not have a lot of time left and has stomach cancer and he was going to die soon. Arthur was shocked, hurt and confused. Arthur wanted to quit because he didn't want to go through it all again.