Heartbeat

Twelve-year-old Annie loves to run. When she is barefoot and moving fast, she can hear her heart beating, thump-THUMP, thump-THUMP. That steady rhythm helps in a year when everything around her is shifting. Her mother is expecting a baby, her grandfather is becoming forgetful, and her best friend, Max, is often moody.

At school, Annie has been given an apple to draw, and she watches it change over time just as the people in her life are changing. By paying attention and listening, she begins to understand the many rhythms of life and where she fits within them.

Heartbeat is a middle-grade novel by Sharon Creech, written in free verse. It deals with growing up, family, friendship and change.