Coming of Age

These four stories when taken as one show the growth and maturity of one young man. Asa begins this novel a mature seven year old who is taken out of his family and all that is familiar to him and placed in a new place and family. Asa reacts to this by making up stories and becoming frightened when he loses sight of his mother. Asa is a child and he reacts as a child would.

Later, Asa grows and becomes a precocious eleven year old. Asa makes friends easily because he can read them and guess what they want from him. By doing this, Asa quickly makes many friends in his new fourth grade class. However, his friendships are placed in danger when he is forced to do a poem in a program with another boy. Asa tries to liven it up by doing an...