Heartbeat CD

Rating:
Summary: Delightful Read
Review: Although I have heard of Sharon Creech from my young adult media center specialists, I didn't experience her until reading Love That Dog. Set in the same format as Love That Dog, Heartbeat speaks to the young person in all of us who attempt at all costs to be an individual and not get caught up in "the herd." Creech writes about this need for self-identity without getting preachy or putting others down who feel the need to be associated with "a group." The manner in which she identifies a family as being more than a mom, dad, new baby is also wonderful. For in a sense, the aging grandfather; the neighbor, Mrs. Cobber, and Annie's friend, Max, are also important members of the family as well.

Rating:
Summary: CHANGE IS CONTINUOUS
Review: Annie has a lot going on in her life.

Annie's teacher tells her to draw an apple. She is excited about drawing the apple, but the longer she holds on to it the more it changes.

Annie's mom is pregnant. Annie watches the baby change. She hears the heartbeat and sees the sonogram. She is amazed.

Annie's Grandpa lives with Annie's family. He's a good grandpa, but he can't remember how to fry chicken or do other things.

Annie's friend Max joins track, but is too proud to accept hand-me-down shoes or money for new ones. Max is Annie's running partner and friend. She wants to change his mind, but how?

_Heartbeat_ is a story about change. Change is continuous; life moves on, and it's okay. Annie ponders the changes she sees, and she voices her thoughts. Sometimes she's funny and sometimes she's wise, like Grandpa. Reading _Heartbeat_, young readers will discover they are no different than Annie. Life has many views and synonyms to express them. It's a terrific addition to Creech's growing collection of juvenile books.

Actress Mandy Siegfried reads the audio version of _Heartbeat_. She gives an amusing, insightful performance.

Rating:
Summary: Simple writing that resonates
Review: Annie loves to run and draw. When her teacher assigns them to draw 100 pictures of the same apple, Annie begins to see things in different ways. Her grandfather's forgetfulness and the baby growing inside her mother are part of a rhythm, a heartbeat, that Annie begins to explore.

Simple writing underscores it's profound themes. Destined to become a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful Read
Review: Annie loves to run. She runs barefoot everyday in the park. Sometimes her friend Max joins her. Max runs to escape from small town life, but Annie runs for its own sake. Running is the place where she can set her own pace and think about all the changes that are occurring in her life. Her mother is pregnant, her grandfather is forgetful and twelve-year-old Annie herself is changing, wondering:

"And what did I think/ when I was small/ and why did I forget?/ And what else will I forget/ when I grow older?/ And if you forget. Is it as if/ it never happened?/ Will none of the things/ you saw or thought or dreamed/ matter?"

HEARTBEAT is the latest book by Newbery Award-winning author Sharon Creech. Written in the same prosy free verse as her popular book LOVE THAT DOG, HEARTBEAT focuses less on poetic form and more on exploring Annie's different emotional states. Creech's poems are snapshots of Annie's feelings and experiences, an effective way of telling a story in short hand. But the impressions of the poems are fleeting, as Creech uses repetitive superlatives and abstract language rather than building images of Annie's world.

The most vivid images in the book are descriptions of color: the changing colors of the seasons around Annie as she runs, the changing color of an apple Annie is assigned to draw 100 times for art class, and the colors in the room where her mother gives birth to her new baby brother. These colors create a kaleidoscopic effect. Like Annie's moods, the colors in her world are always changing, making them both difficult to pinpoint.

Poetry is becoming a popular form for children's literature. HEARTBEAT does not have the same intensity as Karen Hesse's Newbery Award-winning book OUT OF THE DUST, but it does mark a new direction for Creech. It is a more mature book than LOVE THAT DOG, and Creech's descriptions of ordinary feelings in an ordinary life are a worthy subject for poetry. Readers accustomed to the transcontinental adventures of her previous books, which include WALK TWO MOONS, BLOOMABILITY and THE WANDERER, will have a chance to encounter another unexplored region: the inner workings of a twelve-year-old girl's mind.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: "SPRINTING BAREFOOT THROUGH LIFE'S CHALLENGES"
Review: If the library orders this book because I have said "Love That Dog" is one of my *very* favorite stories, soon I will be holding my breath, hoping my pacemaker keeps my heart going *thump thump* ~ hoping that *very* many readers get caught up in the exhilaration of barefoot running ~ the colored pencils and sketching ~ the synonyms and footnotes ~ the love between generations ~ the miracle of birth ~ and the remaining appleseed of this beautiful story, this *very* different story. 1

(Footnote 1: "different" meaning unlike "Love That Dog").

Then later, when a reader tells her parents, her teacher, her classmates that this is one book she'd really like to own, to hang onto for the days when she might have trouble remembering the heartbeats of growing up ~ all the tugs and tears ~ we will all read Sharon Creech's "HEARTBEAT" and understand better life's rhythms.

Sharon Creech, this is a heartfelt Thank-You for sharing twelve-year-old Annie, and Max who joined the track team while Annie balked at competition. Also, Annie's parents and grandpa Joseph whose forgetful momemts alternate with loving thoughtfulness, the baby in ultrasound pictures and finally, real live newborn Joey.

SAYS REVIEWER MCHAIKU "I'm glad I read to the end."