Middle Grade Review: Heartbeat, by Sharon Creech

 

Title: Heartbeat

Author: Sharon Creech; Narrated by Mandy Siegfried

Publisher: HarperFestival Audio, 2004 (Original by Harper Collins, 2004; 208 pages).

Source: Library digital collection

Summary: 
12-year-old Annie loves to run. Not for the track team--definitely not for the track team!--but for the love of feeling her heart beat and her feet hit the ground. Running helps her cope in this year of change: her mother is pregnant, her grandfather is failing, and her best friend Max is even more grouchy than usual.

But between the rhythmic thumping of her heart and, oddly, the art-class assignment to draw an apple for 100 days, Annie learns to find the continuity in change.

Review:
Sharon Creech seldom disappoints, and this book is no exception. A short, sweet, story of a time of change (when is 12 ever not?) for Annie, the book offers no great insights into the world, but does offer some insights into living and being yourself. I thought that the apple was a brilliant touch, allowing Annie (and the reader) to see how through all sorts of change the apple retains its (pardon me) core essence. It's a lesson Annie is learning to apply to other things in her life, and the author doesn't ram it down the reader's throat--you have to see it for yourself.

The narration is good; i.e., nothing about it sticks in my mind. That tells me that the characters were adequately rendered and the reading largely transparent. There were no technical glitches or oddities.

Recommendation: 
The book doesn't give us huge issues or crises, making it suitable for younger readers, and if some of Annie's changes are specific to starting middle school, life changes at every age. I can recommend this for kids from 8 up. 


Full Disclosure: I checked Heartbeat out of my digital library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Half a Centurty of--Half a WHAT???!!

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Just multiply the candles by a number larger than pi. . .

Putting the books on hold today to reflect a bit about. . . a half-century of living.  HOLY BOVINES, DID I SAY A HALF CENTURY??  Fifty years seems to require some response.  Something besides the "label me brain-dead and ship me to Texas" moment I had this morning. . . when I showed up at the gym for my swim, only to realize (well into the changing process) that the pack containing my swim stuff (like a suit, you know) was still at home.  On the floor of the garage where I set it down to put on my jacket and lift down the bike.  Since they don't let you swim nude in our pool, I had a nice ride and a weight workout.  The pool will still be there tomorrow.  Maybe the suit, too.

In a way, it's odd to be reflecting on my life using a wireless keyboard and an iPad.  I grew up in an era of black-and-white TVs and manual typewriters.  I don't think the changes of the last 50 years compare with the changes my grandparents lived through--my maternal grandmother crossed Washington State in a covered wagon and lived to see the beginning of the internet era (I'm not sure she was very aware of that, but certainly the computer era was well under way before she died in 1991).  But I do love my computer, and the internet is a wondrous thing.

I've read a number of books lately on being or becoming a writer, and seen mention more than once of reasons people find for not starting.  One of those (as the writers of the writing books speculate) is "I'm too old.  I'm already 50."  I'm here to say that 50 isn't old.  I published my first book last year, when I was still 48.  But I'm just getting started on this career, and I am happy to say that it doesn't feel like I'm too old.

So if you are thinking about it. . . don't count your years.  Count the hours you can find to write instead.  And then sit down and have a heckuva fun time doing it. 

I am.

(I will return soon to my regularly scheduled programming. . . don't touch that dial!) 

P.S.  A is for Alpine is now up as a paperback on Amazon.