1. What is the significance of the title, particularly in the context of Gladys' and Ivy's lives? Do you feel that it adequately represents the main themes of this story?

2. This story is largely told from Gladys' and Ivy's respective points of view, with smaller portions from James and Raelene. What would the effect on the story have been had it been told solely from Ivy's point of view? Gladys'? James' or Raelenes'?

3. One Heart is a story told by adults, but in some ways it is mostly about children. Although we never directly meet Wendell or Ann, their characters are two of the most compelling. What are some of the techniques that McCafferty uses to evoke Ann and Wendell? What kind of children do you think they were? How does the author use the camp children to illuminate Ann's and Wendell's characters?

4. What kind of effect does it have on the story that both Gladys and Ivy have poor grammar and yet intense storytelling powers? Can you locate specific places in the story where this effect heightens the emotion of the moment? How does McCafferty differentiate the two sisters' voices?

5. Late in the novel, James becomes enraptured with a gosling family and its journey to the lake. What is the significance of this episode? Can you locate other examples in the story where the natural world is employed to set a mood or tell us something?

6. "I used to be a woman who thought of the eggs when she made the eggs-I liked that scrambled yellow color, and the bacon when she made the bacon-the smell and sizzle . . . . It's not as pleasant when your mind drifts. It's really not the right way to live. I'm against it. But I can't seem to make it stop." (p.40) One might construe this as Ivy's philosophy of life, do you agree? What would you say is Gladys' philosophy of life? What about Raelenes' and James'?

7. How does the setting of Camp Timber contribute to and illuminate the sisters' story? Would another setting have worked as well? What about the kitchen as the place that Ivy and Gladys worked side by side for years?

8. "What matters in the end, she suggests, has less to do with conventional images of happiness than with the deep, close-to-the-bone bonds that actually sustain us" (New York Times Book Review). What do you think the reviewer means by this comment? How do the themes of love and loneliness play out in this story? Grief and redemption? Do you feel this story has a happy ending?

9. Both of the sisters take journeys of discovery Gladys with Raelene and Ivy with James. What does Gladys learn from her journey? What does Ivy learn? Why do you suppose James allows himself to become involved with Ivy even though he is still deeply in love with Gladys? Why is Raelene so determined to befriend Gladys?

10. At James' urging, he and Gladys revisit the lake where their three-year-old daughter, Ann, drowned. Gladys is deeply upset with herself for going in the water on that day. Why? Can you trace Gladys slow journey to forgiving herself? What are the other turning points for her?