Heartbeat

At 13, Annie loves to draw, run barefoot, and spend time with her grandfather, who lives with her and is becoming more forgetful. She has a new love, for the baby growing inside her mother. As Annie draws 100 apples for art class, runs without joining track, spends more time with her grandfather, and goes to her mother's birthing classes, she grows with the rhythm of life, one heartbeat at a time. Mandy Siegfried makes this poetry collection a living, glowing story. As the perfect complement to Creech's simple yet elegant writing, Siegfried combines youth with thoughtfulness, emotion, and observation, giving HEARTBEAT the pulse it deserves. J.M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2005 ALA Notable Recording (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 19, 2004
Creech returns to the free-verse form she employed so successfully in Love That Dog
for this insightful exploration of life's beginning and ending and the joys to be encountered on the journey. Twelve-year-old narrator Annie loves to run but has no interest in competing. She likes hearing the "thump-thump, thump-thump
" of her bare feet hitting the damp grass, and running alongside her friend Max when he joins her, stride for stride. The running becomes a metaphor: Annie's grandfather who once loved to run is now growing forgetful; Max joins the track team and his wish to win drives a wedge between them; and Annie's father and pregnant mother take her with them to hear the baby's heartbeat ("a-whoosh-a-whoosh-a-whoosh
/ very fast/ as if the alien baby/ must be running hard"). Annie describes her own heartbeat as "thump-THUMP, thump-THUMP
," curiously close to the rhythm of her running. Through Annie's observations, Creech eloquently captures the contrast between the baby's embarkation on life and Grandpa's slow withdrawal from it: "It is as if/ he is evaporating/ or shrinking/ disappearing—/ little pieces vanishing each day/ while the alien baby/ grows bigger and bigger." Annie's growing interest in and talent for drawing becomes a theme that develops so subtly that readers may be surprised by the ways in which the threads of the novel come together for a fully satisfying conclusion. Ages 8-12.

At 13, Annie loves to draw, run barefoot, and spend time with her grandfather, who lives with her and is becoming more forgetful. She has a new love, for the baby growing inside her mother. As Annie draws 100 apples for art class, runs without joining track, spends more time with her grandfather, and goes to her mother's birthing classes, she grows with the rhythm of life, one heartbeat at a time. Mandy Siegfried makes this poetry collection a living, glowing story. As the perfect complement to Creech's simple yet elegant writing, Siegfried combines youth with thoughtfulness, emotion, and observation, giving HEARTBEAT the pulse it deserves. J.M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. 2005 ALA Notable Recording (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine