Heartbeat

My copy has the yellow apple cover.

Heartbeat. As I have probably mentioned, my favourite used bookstore is closing soon. I sauntered over there the other day to see how it was going (big sale, you know). As luck would have it, I happened upon another gem from Sharon Creech, she of Love that Dog, Hate That Cat wonder.

Heartbeat is told in the voice of 12-year old Annie, whose great love is running. It is a coming-of-age story, as she processes and comes to understand her world. Her world includes her best friend and running buddy, Max, her parents and baby growing inside her mom, and her grandpa whose health and memory are not what they once were. But Annie also shows her strength and grace not only at home, but in school, dealing with show more her English classes, art classes and unwanted pressure from a track coach to join the team. Annie is a girl who has a solid sense of herself and it is a joy to share a glimpse of this through this year of her life. Sharon Creech has done it again, creating a compelling story in spare, free verse, that can easily be read in one sitting. I didn't want it to end. For those of you who loved the other 2, I highly recommend this book. show less

I couldn’t wait to read this collection of poems by Sharon Creech as I fell in love with her story Walk Two Moons last year when I read it to my class.

Heartbeat is a story set up as a series of poems. The reader is dropped into the middle of Annie’s life, to experience things from her perspective. Annie loves to run; her thump, thump, thump is the rhythm of her life. This rhythm translates into heartbeat. The slowing heartbeat of her declining grandfather and the fast heartbeat of her little sister growing inside of their mother.

In fact the whole idea of life being a circle is a theme throughout the book. Annie is running, running, running all the time. She says that her mother worries that she will someday just run away, but show more Annie says she shouldn’t worry about that since she will always come back home, because that is where she got her start. The circle of life continues as a theme as she describes the decline of her grandfather and her mother’s growing belly and birth of the baby. Everything in this story is seamlessly connected and the contrast of new life and old life is beautifully balanced. This theme is also shown through her art project of drawing an apple for 100 days…starting with it fresh and new and perfect until it is finally eaten and brown and used up.

Max is her friend who loves to run with her. But while Annie runs for the fun of it and because it’s her lifeline, Max is running as if to escape his life. So there is that contrast as well.

I would love to be able to read this book aloud with my fifth graders. The themes are prevalent throughout and not hard to decipher. But by studying the themes in contrast to one another, my students would be able to get a lot more from the book. The contrast of life and death, or running to live and running to escape life…there is a lot packed into this collection of poetry. show less

Hearbeat is one of the most unique books in YA literature that I have ever read. Its magic is in its simplicity-- nothing truely out of the ordinary happens--yet it explores many complicated ideas in very easy to understand manner.

A novel in poems, It tells a story of a young girl, Annie and the events happening in her life. The anticipated birth of her new sibling is juxtaposed wit the final period of her grandfather's life.

An amazing book

I throughly enjoyed this book, as I anticipated that I would having loved her other books as well! This book tells the story of Annie, a young girl living with her grandpa and parents who are expecting the birth of an "alien baby." Annie also has a best friend named Max who hasn't had the typical childhood, and uses running as a means of blowing off steam. Man wants Annie to run on the track team as he is, but she doesn't want to. It says a lot about Annie's character when she doesn't give in to the peer pressure of Max or the girls track coach to join the team. Annie is given an assignment in art class to draw the same Apple for 100 days straight! She learns that the apple looks a bit different over the course of those 100 days, but show more that her life also changes as well.

This book would be put to great use in the classroom by showing students how a poem doesn't need to rhyme to be considered a poem, and that some poems are the length of a book and tell an entire story! Exposing them to different variations of poetry can further open up different writing possibilities for them! show less

An apple a day for 100 days. Heartbeat is a story told through the eyes of 12 year old Annie. Annie's life is going through many changes. Her mother is having a baby and she is watching her slowly fade away from dementia. Like her apple, the subject of her art project, her life is changing more and more each day. Beautifully written through poems Heartbeat gives a nice break from the rhythm of everyday life.

Heartbeat is a book filled with short poems dipicting the life of a thirteen year old girl named Annie. It discusses her love of running and art, her mother's pregnancy and the birth of her baby brother, and her grandfathers aging and forgetfulness. She discusses her growing relationship with her best friend, Max, and how they are always there for each other, even in the oddest of ways. You can see growth and change in Annie's life, as well as those in her life.

This book is a compilation of poems in various verse that tell the story of Annie. Annie is twelve years old, and is going through some pretty big life changes, including her mother having another baby, her grandfather loosing his memory, and a temperamental best friend. She finds comfort in running alone, and drawing.

I thought this book was such a unique and interesting way to present the thoughts of a twelve year old. The whole book had a wonderful cadence, and did a great job emoting the thoughts of a tween realistically. I would love to read this to older students and have them work on a story told in poetry, or even just write one poem about the events that occur in their life or even just in that day. I also think that the show more content of the book is incredibly relate able to kids in that age group, and it would be comforting to them to read. show less