Mother/Son Bookclub: The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

Book Review:

After Arthur throws a brick at a junk man, he is sentenced to 120 hours of community service helping the junk man. The junk man asks Arthur to walk around the city collecting the 7 most important things. At first, Arthur doesn’t understand what he’s doing, but in time, he learns there is much more to the junk man than he originally believed. This is a beautiful book about redemption, faith, and what’s important in life. My boys and I all loved it.

Discussion Questions:

(taken from https://www.readbrightly.com/family-book-club-the-seventh-most-important-thing/)

1. Why does the Junk Man believe getting hit by the brick was an act of God?

2. What is the difference between retribution and rehabilitation? Which do you think is a better punishment?

3. What other characters besides Mr. Hampton make a difference in Arthur’s life? How?

4. Hampton took broken things in Guam after his first vision to create something beautiful from them. How is this a bigger life lesson?

5. What are the Seven Most Important Things? Do you remember when each one appears in Arthur’s life? What is happening in his life that makes those items important?

6. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” is Mr. Hampton’s favorite Bible verse (Proverbs 29:18), and he shares it with everyone. What do you think it means?

7. Why does Mr. Hampton call his cart a chariot and people saints?

8. Arthur thinks Mr. Hampton is the reason he helps Squeak, something the “old” Arthur wouldn’t have done. Do you agree that Arthur changes throughout the story because of Mr. Hampton? How so?

9. Hampton says that hell is easy to create but creating heaven takes a lifetime. What does he mean? Do you agree with the museum people that the throne–and heaven–reflect us?

10. Do you believe in Heaven? If so, what do you think it looks like?

Food Ideas:

We ate caramel popcorn, Good & Plenties, tinfoil wrapped cookies, and orange soda.

Activity:

We created an art project where the boys wrapped yarn around a piece of cardboard in various designs. Then they wrapped the whole thing with tinfoil and colored the various sections made by the yarn with different color sharpies. The final product had a stained glass window look and turned out beautifully!

And for more great ideas, don’t forget to check out the mother/son bookclub for The Crossover by Kwame Alexander or some of my mother/daughter bookclubs, like the one for Inside Out or Anne of Green Gables.