LCE 6th grade Electronic Book Review

1. Student Reviewer’s Name: Caroline K
2. Date of review of book: 6-11-07
3. Complete Book Title: Heartbeat
4. Author of Book: Sharon Creech
5. Year the book was published: 2004
6. Genre: fiction
7. Student rating of the book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 1

8. Main conflict in the book: In this book Annie is a girl who is going through the ups and downs of life when her mother becomes pregnant and the baby begins to receive all the attention. Then, her grandpa’s brain is “falling apart” because he is growing old. To escape from all of this Annie loves to run, she usually runs with her friend, Max, or alone. When max starts becoming distant it doesn’t stop her from doing what she loves but it does cause her to think.

9. Setting of the book: (place and time) This book occurred in the present time in a small yellow house on the edge of a tiny town with one main street and two stoplights.

10. Main Characters and part they play in the book:
(1) Annie is twelve years old and is the daughter of a pregnant mother, the sister of an “alien baby” (or at least that’s what she refers to it because of what she saw in the sonogram.) She is also the granddaughter of a confused old man who is losing his mind perhaps to alzheimers.
(2) Max is a friend of Annie’s. He’s a year older and always runs with her. The two met when they were very young because their grandpa’s were friends. Their grandpa’s would take them to the park where they run together now. Max is a very moody guy. Annie says he’s been like that ever since she’s known him. Once Max’s father left his family and his grandpa died he became distant. He now rags on Annie claiming that she’s spoiled because both of her parents are alive and together.

11. Are the characters believable and interesting? I believe these characters are very believable and interesting because there are people like this in the real world and anybody reading this book could compare someone in their life to a character in this story.

12. One excellent direct quotation from the book: (include who said it, page number, and use
quotation marks!) “I feel infinitely happy that this miracle baby has come to us.”- Annie, 162 This is an important quote because it showed that even though Annie was skeptic about having a little sister, she now realizes it was all for the best.

13. Good reasons to read the book: I think this book teaches people lessons that they can use whenever there is a challenge or obstacle in their life. For instance, even though max began to become distant in the end everything worked out for the best. This book is very intriguing because all of these events are real and they all happen in everyday life.

14. Any reasons not to read the book? I don’t have any reasons not to read this book. I just think because this book is formatted like a book of poems, some people might have trouble understanding it especially if you don’t like reading poems, but because it is formatted like a poem it makes the story that much more interesting.

15. Did you like this book or not? And why…. I loved this book!!!!!!! I felt that I could relate to parts of this story and that others could too. The conflicts in Annie’s life are problems that people all over the world go through all the time. Though different people may not have a grandfather who has alzheimers or a friend who they feel is becoming distant, most everyone has a problem related to that. In this story it shows that if these events do occur they’re just another road bump in life. This book is really an inspiration to people who are going through things like what Annie is going through in the story and I highly suggest that EVERYONE READ THIS BOOK!!!!