Change of Heart, by Jodie Picoult

Characters
	Prison
June Kurt Nealon Elizabeth Claire Shay Bourne  (I. M. Bourne) Grace - sister Maggie Bloom –ACLU lawyer Mother – spa owner, ChutZpah Father – rabbi Christian Gallagher – doctor, Maggie’s boyfriend Father Michael Mather Walter Ian Fletcher – scholar, converted atheist Reverend Justus	Shay Lucius – AIDS Crash Calloway – bird, Batman and Robin CO Smythe CO Whitaker Warden Coyne Alma - nurse

For discussion:

1.      Discuss the characters.

a.       Did the author do a good job of developing the characters?

b.      Which character did you connect with? 

c.       Discuss Maggie and her issues with her body.   Was that realistic?  Were you dismayed to read that she was a size 14?

2.      What did you think of the “miracles” that Shay performed in prison?

a.       CO Smythe’s daughter and teddy bear filled with peanut shells

b.      The bubble gum

c.       Batman and Robin

d.      Lucius being healed temporarily

e.       At the trial – handcuffs and chains falling off still locked

3.      Do you think Father Michael should have revealed immediately that he had been on the jury?

a.       He felt guilty about sentencing Shay to death.  Do you think he should have felt so or not?

4.      Do you think a religious person would read this book differently than a non-religious person?

5.      How did Father Michael’s photo of he and his grandfather end up in Shay’s effects?  Do you think Shay recognized him all along?

6.      When did you start to suspect that Shay was not guilty of both murders?  That something else had happened?

7.      Did you like the ending when Claire’s touch revived her dog?  Was that a fitting ending?

8.      When Maggie first went to visit Shay in prison, she wondered “what would be the hardest luxury to leave behind.”  For Shay it was walking barefoot on grass.  What would you miss the most?