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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. What does Asa first notice about Dave?

2. What vegetable has Asa grown as a class project?

3. What does Asa see sitting around his mother?

4. Why is the one of the girls dancing onstage crying?

5. What does Asa's mother insist that Dave buy for Asa?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Asa and Dave do while Asa's mother talks to Asa's father on the phone?

2. What does Asa realize when he awakens in the night in the bungalow?

3. Who is Asa, and what is he doing as the novel begins?

4. What city will Asa be leaving and where will he be going to live with his mother?

5. What do Dave, Asa and Asa's mother do after dinner on their first night together?

6. What news does Asa get from his mother when he returns home from school, and how does he respond to the news?

7. How does Asa try to endear Dave to him when they meet?

8. Where does Asa go in the middle of the night, and what does he do?

9. What problem does Joel have with the new poem?

10. Who is Dave and how do he and Asa get along at their first meeting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"What Hearts" is a classic example of a coming-of-age story. What does that classification entail? Why does this book fit into this category?

Essay Topic 2

What is the greatest lesson Asa learns from Dave? Is it that important lessons are also painful ones? What will Asa always recall about his life with Dave as his stepfather?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Jean. What is her role in the story, "What Hearts"? What was the author trying to accomplish by developing Jean's character in the novel?

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