4. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
From the title, what do you think the book will be about?
What initially grabs your attention in the book?

5. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Draw a picture of what Eddie looks like.
Eddie exists in a “weary state of acceptance”. What do you think this means? How did Eddie come to be in this state?

6. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
How does counting down the minutes of Eddie’s life affect you as a reader? Do you enjoy this technique? Why or why not?
“She was like a wound beneath an old bandage. And he had grown used to the bandage.” What does this mean? Explain.
Draw Marguerite.

7. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #01
“No story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.” What does this mean? Explain.
Think of a time this was true in your life. Tell me about it. Explain.

8. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #02
Why is the key significant to the story? How does it tie in?
Draw the Freddy Free Fall ride car with the trapped people.

9. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #03
Would you risk your life to save a child (or anyone) you don’t know?
Predict what you think will happen. Will Eddie save the girl? Explain your prediction.
Draw the scene.

10. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #04
What is the author’s vision of the journey to heaven?
Does this fit with your image or beliefs of what happens to you when you die? How is the vision similar or different?

11. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #05
What are Eddie’s first sensations of being in heaven?
Ruby Pier is an amusement park, not a modern day theme park. What are the differences between Ruby Pier and today’s theme parks?
Draw the scene.

12. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #06
What is the significance of Eddie finding himself in the amusement park again after he dies?
What is your reaction when Eddie realizes he’s spent his entire life trying to get away from Ruby Pier only to be back there immediately after death? Do you think this is important? Why?

13. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #07
Share your reactions and thoughts about the Blue Man’s story, his relationship to his father, and his taking silver nitrate. What, if anything, does this have to do with Eddie?
“This is not your heaven, it’s mine”. Why does the Blue Man say this? What does it mean? OVER

14. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #07 cont.
3. How does the Blue Man die? What affect does it have on you when you look at the same story from two different points of view? How aware are we of other’s experiences of events that happen simultaneously to us and to them? Why?

15. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #08
What is the first lesson that Eddie learns in heaven?
“There are no random acts.They are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.” EXPLAIN
What is the author (Albom) telling us about life and death?

16. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #09
“Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always. They feel they are supposed to.” Do you agree with Albom’s reasons for boys going to war? Why or why not?
Draw the captain and Eddie in the tree.

17. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #10
How does the shooting of Eddie’s buddy change him?
What did Eddie learn during the war?
“War could bond men like a magnet, but like a magnet it could repel them too.” Explain.
4. How do the actions of the soldiers make you feel? Do you think they were justified?
5. Draw the camp where Eddie was held captive.

18. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #11
“In the middle of a big war, you go looking for a small idea to believe in.” Explain.
Do you think everyone has a time to die as Albom suggests?
What reactions do you have when you discover that Eddie was shot by his own captain?
Do you think Eddie changed as a result of being in the war?

19. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #12
Why did the captain shoot Eddie?
“I took your leg to save your life.” Explain.
Why does the captain tell Eddie that sacrifice is not really a loss but a gain?
What is the second lesson?

20. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #13
“Why would heaven make you relive your own decay?” Explain.
Why do you think the people described in the diner are there? Who are they? Are they all stones in Eddie’s life?
What do you think the significance of Eddie’s dad being at the diner might be?

21. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #14
“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped.” Is this true? How does this idea make you feel?
How does Eddie’s father damage him?

22. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #15
“You have peace when you make it with yourself.” Explain.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

23. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #16
“Things that happen before you are born still affect you. And people who come before your time affect you as well.” Explain.
How does this relate to Eddie’s life. Who are some people that have come before you that have affected your life?

24. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #17
Why does Eddie cover for his father at the pier when he is ill? How do Eddie’s father’s choices and decisions actually shape Eddie’s life?
Would you have saved Mickey?
Do people die because of loyalty? When? Why?

25. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #18
“We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But Hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do we do to ourselves.” How?
Why is this important for Eddie to understand? Is it important for us to understand? Why?

26. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #19
What was Eddie’s third lesson?
Why is Marguerite Eddie’s fourth person? What do you think she will teach?
All the others lived in their heavens. Why do you think Marguerite’s heaven is weddings?

27. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #20
How does Marguerite’s wish to only be at weddings relate to her own life, and to her relationship and life with Eddie?
Draw the two together.
Is this time Eddie is with Marguerite closer to what you think heaven would or should be like? Explain.

28. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #21
“Lost love is still love. It takes a different form.… Life has an end. Love doesn’t”.
Why does she say this to Eddie?
Do you think he gets it?
Do you agree or disagree with her? Why?

29. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #22
What is the significance of each item Dominguez discovers in Eddie’s drawer?
The author divulges important information about Eddie’s life by detailing 15 of his birthdays. \
How does this device illuminate Eddie’s character?
Do you like Eddie? Why or why not?

30. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #23
Why does Eddie’s come upon the children in the river?
What does Tala mean when she says “you make good for me”? Is Eddie’s life penance and why?
What is the significance of Tala pulling Eddie to safety after he dies?
Why is it Tala that pulls Eddie to heaven and not one of the other four?
What would you say to Eddie when he laments that he accomplished nothing with his life? What did he accomplish?

31. The Five People You Meet in Heaven Entry #24
Write the five lessons Eddie learns.
Which five people might you meet in heaven?
What lessons might be important to your life?
What did you enjoy, not enjoy?