Heartbeat

Creech, Sharon. Heartbeat. 2004, 180p. ISBN 006-054023-0. FIC CRE on the library shelves.

Told in free verse, this short book packs a lesson in discovering the most unexpected in the smallest of life’s miracles. Anna likes to run barefoot in all seasons. She runs because she can, she runs for the pleasure of running. On her runs she is joined by Max, who runs with her part of the way. When she’s asked by her art teacher to draw an apple one hundred times over the next one hundred days, Anna is not sure her drawings will be any different. But as time passes, she notices details on the apple that she had not seen before. And with her grandfather slowly losing his mind, and the pregnancy of her mother, and Max’s anger and drive to win running competition, Anna realizes that everything becomes different when you look at it long enough. This is a book short on words, but not on life’s lessons.