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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. A radiologist told them that their son had what?

2. Colton said they had yellow from here to here, motioning from his _____________ to his right hip.

3. How did Colton react to the surprise brought by Norma?

4. Why could Todd not understand how Colton could have gone to heaven?

5. Where were the markers located?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Colton's reaction to his favorite action figure?

2. How did the Burpos realize something unusual has happened to their son?

3. Why did Todd rage at God? Should he have done this? Why or why not?

4. Why did Colton yell for his father? How is this important?

5. What made taking a CT scan challenging? What wa the technician's suggestion? Was this good? Why or why not?

6. What are the diagnoses given for Colton's illness? How could these pose a problem?

7. How did Colton react at the funerals? Why?

8. How did a broken leg severely affect the family's finances?

9. What was significant about the donations that came in?

10. How was life difficult after the surgery?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Before being diagnosed with appendicitis, Colton is misdiagnosed.

Part 1) How is Colton's appendicitis first diagnosed? How is it misdiagnosed again? What leads to the wrong diagnoses? How do they affect Colton and his family? How different would this story be if Colton's appendicitis had been diagnosed correctly the first time?

Part 2) If given the chance, would the Burpo family go back and change the events of this story so that Colton was diagnosed correctly the first time? Why or why not?

Part 3) When you have suffered from set-backs, illness, or challenges that led to positive outcomes, would you have to change the past so those challenges never occurred? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Heaven is filled with children.

Part 1) Describe this child-filled heaven. Why might heaven be filled with children? How does the author prove that Colton's story about heaven is true? What information does he provide to back this claim that heaven is filled with children?

Part 2) How does this new information about heaven affect the Burpo family? How does their view of children change? How might this book change others views of children?

Part 3) What do you see as the importance of children? What role do they play in society? How can adults learn from them?

Essay Topic 3

Colton knows about his father first deciding to be a pastor.

Part 1) When did Todd decide to be a pastor? What led him to this decision? How is it surprising that Colton knew about this decision and how he came to make it?

Part 2) How does this knowledge of Todd's decision to become a pastor help support the possibility that Colton went to heaven? What other proof is there in this book to support this astounding trip?

Part 3) In what ways could someone show this proof of a trip to heaven to be invalid? How can Colton's stories of heaven be proven to be nothing more than a little boy's imagination?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 934 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample