The Simple Gift - Into the World When individuals enter a new stage of personal experience, they are shaped as to develop a response of growth and change. The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick is a text that explores this concept of transitions into new phases of an individual's life. The Simple Gift is a free-verse novel targeted to young adults. The novel is divided into eleven chapters and again into ten or so poems …showed first 75 words of 682 total…

…showed last 75 words of 682 total…his life. The quote below from Chapter 11 details Billy's willingness to return to education: The dreaded and unpleasing aspect of his life in Chapter 1. Billy's transition has completed in chapter eleven as he feels comfortable in his new home and sees the departure of his best friend Old Bill. At this stage, Herrick has shaped meaning to the responder that Billy has grown and definitely matured. The troublesome teenager from Chapter 1 has become a man