New here? Just sign up with Google — your account includes Matilda, our gift book, forever.
Restart · Garden Heights
Part 7
for Restart · Part 7 · Chapters 25–27
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 7
One surviving image — the girl in the blue dress — leads Chase to the stolen medal hidden on his own roof.
The Blue Dress ClueChase is desperate to make restitution: he knows the boy he used to be stole Mr. Solway's Medal of Honor, but the hiding place is sealed inside his lost memory. Then the cue finds him — the little girl in the blue dress is not his half sister Helene but a figure in a painting, one he could only have seen through his neighbor's solarium window — a glass-walled sunroom — from the roof of his own house.
Back on the RoofHe climbs out the upstairs window and, on the way down, spots the medal wedged behind a loose shake — a rough wooden roof shingle. The lost night rushes back: he had just hidden the medal when he noticed Mr. Tottenham doing yoga in his solarium, pulled out his phone laughing to sneak a picture, lost his balance, and slid off the roof. Medal in hand, he bolts for the assisted living facility to return it and confess everything.
The Webers DecideJoel narrates the Webers mid-argument: Shoshanna struggles to admit she was wrong about Chase, conceding at least that the blow that hurt Joel was an accident. Joel presses her to go talk to Chase, she agrees, and a phone call to Chase's mother sends the whole group racing after him.
The Vacuum GambitAaron — still convinced Chase faked amnesia to cheat his old crew out of the money the medal could bring — and Bear block Chase in the hallway, and Aaron yanks the medal from his pocket. Chase snatches it back, ducks into a resident's room, deliberately shatters a flowerpot, fetches a vacuum cleaner, and feeds the medal into the machine with the dirt. Then he charges, bowls both boys over, and sprints down the hall with the proof rattling inside.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Memory, pressure, and proof: trigger, vivid, surge, ultimatum, restitution…
Literary Elements
A flashback that arrives through the senses, rotating first-person narrators — including the villain’s — and dramatic irony as readers outrun the characters
Cross-Curricular
Memory science — retrieval cues and triggers, recognition versus recall, and why recovered memories return in fragments that must be checked
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
Chapter 25
Chase Ambrose — The girl in the blue dress — the only image Chase kept from before his accident — turns out to be a painting he saw through his neighbor’s window from his own roof. Climbing up to check, he finds the medal behind a loose shingle, and the whole night of the fall floods back: the hiding place, the yoga next door, the phone, the slip. He races off to return the medal to Mr. Solway.
Chapter 26
Joel Weber — Shoshanna wrestles with being wrong. She concedes that the blow that hurt Joel was an accident, but admitting the rest comes hard. Joel pushes her to go talk to Chase, she agrees, and a call to Chase’s mother tells them where he has gone — the assisted living facility — so the Webers race after him.
Chapter 27
Aaron Hakimian — The story moves inside the scheme. Aaron still believes Chase faked his amnesia to dodge sharing the money the medal could bring. He and Bear corner Chase in the hallway and grab for the medal — and Chase escapes with a shattered flowerpot, a borrowed vacuum cleaner, and the medal hidden inside the machine.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 25–27, then answer each question.
🔑Knowledge Bank · The Key That Fits the Lock
Cognitive Science · Retrieval CuesA buried memory is rarely pulled up by effort alone; it is usually unlocked by a cue — a sight, sound, smell, or phrase in the present that overlaps with the past. Memory researchers describe remembering as pattern completion — reactivating one stored detail lights up the web of details linked to it. That is why the smell of sunscreen can summon an entire beach, and why one bar of an old song can return a whole year of your life. The principle comes with a rule: the more closely the cue matches the original moment — same place, same light, same feeling — the more power it has. Chase spends months ordering his brain to surrender the night of the fall and gets nothing back, because commands are not cues. Then he works out where he once saw the single image his damaged memory kept, climbs back to that exact spot, and the door swings open on its own. Effort knocks at a locked memory; a cue is a key.
triggern.Ch.25
Something that sets off a reaction or event
“The painting was the trigger that set Chase’s memory loose.”
vividadj.Ch.25
Sharp, bright, and lifelike
“The returning memory was so vivid he could feel the roof’s slope.”
fragmentn.Ch.25
A small piece broken off from something whole
“For months, a single fragment of that lost night was all he had.”
surgen.Ch.25
A sudden powerful rush
“A surge of images swept over Chase on the landing.”
intactadj.Ch.25
Whole and undamaged
“The medal had waited out the year intact in its hiding place.”
restitutionn.Ch.26
Giving back what was taken to repair a wrong
“Returning the medal is the restitution Chase owes Mr. Solway.”
confrontv.Ch.27
To face a person or problem directly
“Blocked in the hallway, Chase had to confront his two old friends.”
accomplicen.Ch.27
A person who helps someone do wrong
“Bear was Aaron’s accomplice in the plan to sell the medal.”
ultimatumn.Ch.27
A final demand backed by a threat
“Aaron’s words in the hallway amounted to an ultimatum: hand it over.”
deceivev.Ch.27
To make someone believe something untrue
“Aaron was sure Chase had used the amnesia to deceive them all.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, a cue can trigger a buried memory most powerfully when it ___.Ch.25
2‘Vivid’ describes something pale, dim, and easy to ignore.Ch.25
3A ‘fragment’ is ___.Ch.25
4‘Restitution’ means ___.Ch.26
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.25
Word choices:surgeultimatumtriggervivid- some words will not be used
The memories returned in one overwhelming .
Aaron’s demand was really an — the medal, or else.
6An ‘accomplice’ is someone who ___.Ch.27
7To ‘confront’ someone is to face that person directly.Ch.27
8‘Deceive’ means to ___.Ch.27
9Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.25
Word choices:intactaccomplicerestitutionconfront- some words will not be used
The medal survived the fall and the winter .
Bear acted as Aaron’s in the plan.
10An ‘ultimatum’ is a friendly, open-ended suggestion.Ch.27
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 25–27.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Knowing the Face, Losing the Story
Psychology · Recognition vs. RecallPsychologists split remembering into two different jobs. Recognition asks only whether something in front of you matches something stored: you see a face and feel a jolt of familiarity. Recall is much harder — it asks the brain to rebuild an absent scene from scratch, with no prompt in view. The two can fail separately, and every student has felt the gap: a multiple-choice question hands you the answer to recognize, while an essay question demands full recall, which is why the first feels easier even when both test the same fact. A head injury widens the gap further. A person can recognize that a street, a song, or a face means something — a wave of familiarity with no story attached — while recall of the actual events stays sealed. That is Chase’s exact situation: for months he has recognized the girl in the blue dress without being able to recall who, where, or why. Part 7 is the moment recognition finally hands its evidence over to recall.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1The Knowledge Bank explains that a multiple-choice question feels easier than an essay question because it ___.Ch.25
2On the night he fell, Chase had gone out onto the roof to ___.Ch.25
3Chase saw the painting through a neighbor’s window while he was on his own roof.Ch.25
4What was Chase doing at the moment he lost his balance and fell?Ch.25
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events. Number 1 = what happens first.Chapters 25–27
Chase bowls past Aaron and Bear with the vacuum cleaner.
Behind a loose shingle, Chase finds the hidden medal.
The night of the fall — yoga, phone, slip — floods back.
Joel and Shoshanna learn where Chase has run and follow.
Chase realizes he saw the painting from his own roof.
6Aaron and Bear want Chase to return the medal quietly to Mr. Solway.Ch.27
7Why does Chase race to the assisted living facility?Ch.25
8Who narrates chapter 26?Ch.26
9In chapter 26, Joel persuades Shoshanna that they should go talk to Chase.Ch.26
10What do Aaron and Bear plan to do with the Medal of Honor?Ch.27
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Gordon Korman tells the story across Chapters 25–27.
🎭Knowledge Bank · Staging the Return
Authorial Craft · Writing the FlashbackA flashback is a scene from the past dropped into the present action, and Gordon Korman (author) builds his the way memory science says real ones arrive: through the senses, in pieces, all at once. Notice the craft choices. The trigger is physical and ordinary — a glint of metal behind a loose shingle — because in fiction, as in life, the door to the past rarely looks important. The memory does not arrive as a tidy summary; it comes as fragments — a window, rough shingles, a phone in a hand — that the narrator must assemble while we watch, which lets readers feel the vertigo of remembering instead of merely hearing about it. Korman also times the return for maximum pressure: the past comes back at the exact moment the present most needs it, when proof and blame both hang on what really happened that night. A flashback placed early in a book is background; placed here, it is a detonation.
Flashback
The night of the fall interrupts the present story and plays out at last — unlocked by a return to the exact spot where the lost memory was made.
Point of View
Thirty chapters, each narrated in first person by a different character; Part 7 rotates from Chase to Joel to Aaron, so readers even see the scheme from inside.
Dramatic Irony
Because readers assemble the truth from every narrator, we know who took the medal, where it went, and what Aaron wants — before most characters do.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, Gordon Korman (author) delivers the returning memory in fragments so that readers ___.Ch.25
2Restart tells its story through many first-person narrators. This is a choice of ___.Ch.26
3A flashback interrupts the present action to show an earlier event.Ch.25
4Letting Aaron narrate chapter 27 mainly lets the reader ___.Ch.27
5Dramatic irony happens when readers know something the characters do not.Ch.26
6Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.26
Word choices:narratorflashbackglossarycouplet- some words will not be used
Each chapter of Restart is told by a different .
The rooftop memory replaying in the present is a .
7Readers piece together the truth about the medal before Mr. Solway does. This gap creates ___.Ch.27
8A story with rotating narrators gives every chapter to the same character.Ch.27
9The girl in the blue dress works as a ___ that unlocks Chase’s buried past.Ch.25
10Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.27
Word choices:suspenseironyflashbackindex- some words will not be used
Knowing what the characters do not is dramatic .
Waiting to see if Chase can get past Aaron and Bear builds .
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Fragments Under Oath
Memory Science · Recovered MemoriesWhen a lost memory finally comes back, how far can it be trusted? Memory scientists answer: only so far. Remembering is reconstruction, not playback — the brain stores an event as scattered pieces and rebuilds the scene each time it is recalled, quietly filling gaps with what probably happened. Every rebuild is also a chance to rewrite: details can shift, borrow from other days, or absorb things other people said afterward, and the altered memory feels exactly as real as the original. Researchers have shown that witnesses can be confident, vivid, and sincerely wrong all at once, which is why courts treat recovered memories as leads to investigate rather than as proof by themselves. Part 7 quietly honors that science: Chase’s returning memory arrives anchored to a physical fact — the medal itself, sitting exactly where his own hands once left it. A recovered memory tells you where to look; what you can hold in your hand is the evidence.
Picture a boy climbing out of his own upstairs window in broad daylight, chasing the one image his broken memory ever kept: a little girl in a blue dress. For months he assumed she was his four-year-old half sister. She is not. She is a figure in a painting — a painting he could only ever have seen through a neighbor’s window, from the slope of his own roof. So up he goes. And on the way back down, a loose wooden shingle catches his eye, and behind it sits the thing half his town believes he stole twice: a Medal of Honor. The instant his hand closes on it, the locked room in his head swings open — the hiding place, the ridiculous sight in the window next door, the phone coming out of his pocket, the slip. Part 7 is where the truth stops arriving in drips and comes as a flood — and where holding the truth turns out to be its own kind of trap, because the proof of the crime is sitting in the thief’s own hand.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Part 7 argues that memory answers to cues, not to effort.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Memory unlocking, or Pressure tightening? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Memory unlockingPressure tightening ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Chase works out where he once saw the girl in blue→
Chase spots the medal behind a loose shingle→
Aaron and Bear still expect a cut from the medal→
A flowerpot shatters and Chase fetches the vacuum→
🧠Knowledge Bank question
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Courts treat a recovered memory as a lead to investigate rather than proof, because , so what finally settles the question is .
Part 5
Standardized Test
The Madeleine Effect · Reading & Vocabulary · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
Read the passage — the highlighted words are tested — then answer. Tap an answer, then tap it again to confirm.
SATCentral Ideas — the passage's main point
SATAuthor’s Purpose — what the author wants to achieve
SATInference — a conclusion the passage implies
SATWords in Context — a word's meaning in this passage
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated in the passage
TOEFLVocabulary — a tested word's meaning here
The Madeleine Effect
A memory can sit out of reach for years and then return in a sudden surge, called up by a song, a smell, or a photograph. Psychologists call that something a retrieval cue — a signal in the present that overlaps with a piece of the stored past. A memory is not filed whole; it is a pattern spread across millions of brain cells, and when a cue lights up part of the pattern, the brain tends to complete the rest. The closer the cue matches the sights, sounds, and feelings of the original moment, the more likely it is to act as a trigger.
Literature's most famous cue is a small French cake. The writer Marcel Proust described a narrator whose entire childhood came flooding back from the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea. Scientists take the scene seriously: smell and taste travel an unusually direct road to the brain's emotion and memory centers — which may be why a cafeteria smell can drop an adult back into second grade. Memories that arrive this way are called involuntary: nobody goes looking for them, and they often feel more vivid than memories we dig up on purpose.
Vividness, however, is not accuracy, and memory can deceive even its owner. Remembering is less like pressing play and more like rebuilding: the brain reassembles a scene from stored fragments and quietly patches the gaps with guesses. Each act of remembering can edit the memory a little, which is why two honest people describe the same event differently — and why courts treat long-lost memories with caution. A cue can unlock a door sealed for years. But what waits behind the door is a reconstruction, not a recording, and there is no guarantee it has survived intact.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2According to the passage, a retrieval cue works best when it ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3The passage says a memory is stored as ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
4The author brings up Marcel Proust’s madeleine mainly to ___.SAT · Author’s Purpose
5According to the passage, smell and taste are powerful cues because they ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
6The passage suggests that a memory recovered after many years ___.SAT · Inference
7Based on the passage, someone struggling to remember an event would be wisest to ___.SAT · Inference
8In the passage, surge most nearly means ___.SAT · Words in Context
9In the passage, deceive most nearly means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
10In the passage, intact most nearly means ___.SAT · Words in Context
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 7 “The Cue That Opened the Door”
For Chase, one painting brings back a whole lost night. Memories work that way for everyone: a song, a smell, or an old photo can suddenly return a moment you had not thought about in years. Write about a time a small cue brought a memory flooding back to you. Describe the cue, the memory it unlocked, and how the remembering felt in your body. 6–10 sentences. End by saying whether you trust that memory completely — and why or why not.
You can start with: “I had not thought about that day in years, until...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Gordon Korman. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Gordon Korman’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
