Heartbeat
Sharon Creech

Annie loves drawing, running barefoot, her family, and possibly Max, her running partner. As her mother is about to give birth and her beloved grandfather is slowly developing dementia, her friendship with Max is changing too. He believes joining a team will be his route to a better life, but Annie is reluctant to do so. The changes in Annie’s life are reflected in the apple she has to draw 100 times for art class: the fruit is eaten, then begins to decay; finally the seeds are all that remain.

 

An unusual novel written in verse, Heartbeat tackles the largest of themes - life, death and art – but leaves plenty of space for you to ponder these questions for yourself.

Sharon Creech
Heartbeat

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 heading 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.

She is the winner of the Newbery medal for her novel Walk Two Moons, which was also shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize and received a Mind Boggling Books Award and a United Kingdom Reading Association Award. Chasing Redbird was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award.

Sharon is married to Lyle Rigg, a headmaster in New Jersey and they have two grown children: Rob and Karin.

(Page 1)

"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..."

Extract taken from Heartbeat by Sharon Creech published by Bloomsbury