Heartbeat
by Sharon Creech
Annie loves drawing, running barefoot, her family, and possibly Max, her running partner. It’s an eventful time for the 12-year-old: as her mother is about to give birth, her beloved grandfather is sliding slowly into dementia.
Her friendship with Max is in transition too. He believes joining a team will be his route to a better life, but Annie is reluctant to exchange the sheer joy of running for external notions of success.
The changes in Annie’s life are paralleled by the alterations in the apple she has to draw 100 times for art class: the fruit is eaten, begins to decay, and finally the seed is all that remains.
An unusual, spare novel written in free verse, Heartbeat tackles the largest of themes - life, death and art - but leaves plenty of space for readers to ponder the questions and make their own connections.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Extract
'FOOTFALLS
Thump-thump, thump-thump
bare feet hitting the grass
as I run run run
in the air and like the air
weaving through the trees
skimming over the ground
touching down
thump-thump, thump-thump
here and there
there and here
in the soft damp grass
thump-thump, thump-thump
knowing I could fly fly fly
but letting my feet
thump-thump, thump-thump
touch the earth
at least for now...'
-
Sharon Creech
Sharon was born in South Euclid, Ohio a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with her noisy and rowdy family: her parents (Ann and Arvel), her sister (Sandy), and her three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom). In the summer, they usually took a trip, they all piled in a car and headed out to Wisconsin or Michigan or once to Idaho. Her trip to Idaho was the inspiration for her book Walk Two Moons.
When Sharon was young she wanted to be many things when she grew up: a painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a reporter. She says it soon became apparent that she had little drawing talent, very limited tolerance for falling on ice, and absolutely no ability to stay in tune when singing. Sharon also soon learned that she would make a terrible reporter because when she didn't like the facts she changed them. It was in college, where she took literature and writing courses, that she became intrigued with story telling.
Sharon received her BA at Ohio's Miram College and her Master of Arts from the University of Virginia.
Her previous jobs include teacher, editorial assistant, indexer and a researcher.
Sharon started writing novels for adults and published two books while she lived in England having moved there in 1979. She then wrote Absolutely Normal Chaos and since then has mainly written about young people.
Sharon Creech Photo: Bloomsbury
