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Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

What Happened to Hannah

1. How do the children impact Hannah? Do you think they help Hannah deal with her own childhood? Which one was your favorite?

2. Do you think Hannah feels love and resentment toward her mother in equal parts? Or one more than the other? Are her emotions understandable? As an adult, after years of therapy and an educated awareness of the dynamics of her family, do you feel her reactions to her present situation appropriate?

3. What was your favorite scene and why?

4. Were you able to find any symbolism in the story? For example: Hannah purging her memories and emotions while purging her childhood home.

5. Hannah clearly grew and changed during the story. What about Grady? What adjustments did he make in his thinking? How did Hannah’s return to Clearfield alter him?

6. Love isn’t something to be wasted or ignored. When Hannah and Anna finally moved back to Baltimore, Hannah was testy, short tempered, and missing Grady. Do you think she might have eventually conquered her feelings and moved back to Clearfield to be with him if he hadn’t come to her?

7. There’s a little storyteller in everyone. If you could rewrite any part of Hannah’s story what would it be? And how would you tell it?

What Happened to Hannah
by Mary Kay McComas

  • Publication Date: February 7, 2012
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
  • ISBN-10: 006208478X
  • ISBN-13: 9780062084781