Heart Lessons

by Henry Stark

The hero of Heart lessons is one Michael Prescott, a student in a comprehensive Chicago high school, who keeps a diary of the events that he observes both at home and in school. Michael is no angel; he can be cowardly, lazy, disloyal, self-centered, and judgmental. But by the end of the school year he has learned a few things and is on his way to becoming the guy with the "big heart." Every month Michael's class is required to read a story in which the main character encounters a life crisis and must make a life-defining decision. It is in the classroom discussions of these stories that Michael's classmates reveal who they really their prejudices and fears, their loves and hatreds and so on.

502 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2008