What Hearts ANNOTATION
After his mother divorces his father and remarries, Asa's sharp intellect and capacity for forgiveness help him deal with the instabilities of his new world.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Recipient of a 1993 Newbery Honor, this novel is an achingly beautiful, powerfully rendered journey through childhood that is not to be missed, now available in a new edition with a striking new cover.
“From an outstandingly perceptive writer, a moving portrait of a boy, observed at four revealing turning points.” — Pointer Review/Kirkus Reviews
“Combines fast, exciting action with an astonishing ending that proves the power of the individual imagination.” — Starred Review/ALA Booklist"Asa—possessed of rare sweetness, humor, and inner strength—survives intact cruel tests of his integrity, intellect, and sense of decency. From an outstandingly perceptive writer, a moving portrait of a boy, observed at four revealing turning points." —K. "Told with controlled imagery, insightful illumination of motive and the needs of his characters, Brooks has proven himself once again a master of language." —BL.
1993 Newbery Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1993 (ALA)
1993 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1993 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
1993 Teachers' Choices (IRA)
1993 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
About the Author
Bruce Brooks was born in Virginia and began writing fiction at age ten. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972 and from the University Of Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1980. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, newsletter editor, movie critic, teacher and lecturer.
Bruce Brooks has twice received the Newbery Honor, first in 1985 for Moves Make the Man, andagain in 1992 for What Hearts. He is also the author of Everywhere, Midnight Hour Encores, Asylum for Nightface, Vanishing, and Throwing Smoke. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Susie Wilde
The hero of Brook's story is growing up in a home burdened with child and alcohol abuse and breakdowns. The family configuration is non-traditional and so is the child, who is intellectually bright and a genius at survival. The importance of strong stories is that they are creative ways to tell children the truth about their troubled world.
Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum
Asa is followed from the age of seven to twelve in four interwoven stories that focus on baseball, first love, and family tenderness and tension. As in his previous The Moves Make the Man, Brooks blends fine sportswriting with a keen insight into the human heart-a skill recognized with Newbery Honors for both books.
AudioFile - Toni Buzzeo
Asa�s story, complex, heart-breaking and quietly inspiring, is given a characteristically gentle, leisurely reading by John McDonough, which both enhances and complements the text. The novel offers a quartet of snapshots of the circumstances of a young boy�s life and his hard-won emotional development from first through seventh grade. The close third-person narrative of this Newbery Honor Book requires a reading reflective of Asa�s own unfolding awareness and growing wisdom as the structure of his life repeatedly collapses through two divorces and more moves than he can count. The strength of McDonough�s reading comes from the unfailing equanimity in his voice, so reflective of Asa�s own even temperament and open heart. T.B. �AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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