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

An easy and quick Audible title. Sharon Creech is such a great writer. Annie's voice was strong throughout and I enjoyed diving into her life. Her vernacular was interestingly formal but seemed to suit her as she wove her way through the intricacies of home life, school, and friendships. She is spunky but reflective. Her inner voice was strong, thoughtful, and compassionate with lots of wonderings and observations that allowed her to help her friend, Max, as well as her grandfather.

Heartbeat is a touching story I can relate to Annie's journey looking back at my childhood. She feels the way a 12 year old would feel if they were in her shoes. Her passion for running takes this story to a personal and deep level. Annie is charming and bright she hears the heartbeat that keeps everything flowing like a rhythm made up of all the sounds in her background. Her mother's pregnancy, her grandfather's ways, her friends it's all a rhyme.

This is a really beautiful book. Blank verse like this is very accessible to children but this has something for all ages.

It's the tale of a girl who likes to run whose mother is expecting a baby and grandfather who is getting old. Simple but quite powerful in places.

Annie loves to run, just not competitively and not in shoes. She could keep running forever, just not on a team. Max wants her to join him on the track team, her mom is pregnant, and her grandfather had dementia and it's getting worse. How will she deal with it all? A beautiful book in verse

A novel in verse about a girl named Annie who loves to run and is coping with a lot of changes in her life, including a new baby, a grandfather with alzheimer's, and a best friend who is increasingly moody. It's really lovely, and I liked it a lot.