Creech, Sharon. Heartbeat. HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN: 0060540222
I can't say enough positive things about this book. Lovely prose, realistic characters, coming of age, and simply beautiful.
The story is essentially about three things: running, drawing, and change. In a way, those three elements combine to represent everything that is happening in twelve year old Annie's life.
Her male best friend is changing, and she doesn't understand his moods. Her mother is pregnant, and her grandfather is aging before her eyes.
But through it all she remains steady: running and drawing. Not for glory or prize, but simply for the discipline of enjoying what she loves.
An excellent read with depth. Creech does a wonderful job of introducing ideas with showing rather than telling, leaving the young reader plenty of room to ponder.
Frost, Helen. Hidden. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. ISBN: 0374382212
Frost takes an unlikely
premise and spins a warm tale of friendship, healing, and understanding,
and does so without compromising a realistic middle grade perspective.
Books
written in fluid, poetic formats sometimes have trouble with flow and
scene building. This is not the case for Hidden, which grips the reader
tightly with fast-paced suspence from the first page, and then deposits
us in a summer camp setting—complete with cliques, humor, boys,
counselors and traditions.
Wren, hiding in the back of her
mother’s car as an 8 year old, is accidentally kidnapped during a store
robbery and carjacking gone wrong. The beginning of the book details her
encounter with precise words and pauses, while also introducing us to
the opposing protagonist, Darra. Darra is the same age as Wren, but on a
far different sphere of the social spectrum.
Wren escapes, and Darra’s father goes to prison.
Fast-forward
to summer camp at age 15 when the two girls cross paths for the first
time. Wren must suddenly deal with repressed emotions. Darra must deal
with her sense of loss and the blame she placed on Wren for her father’s
arrest. All of these elements come to a head when the girls learn
Darra’s father will soon be released from prison.
This story is
beautiful. There is a realism that is not overly dramatic or sappy. The
girls act like 15 year olds, and must learn what it means to walk in
another person’s shoes. The summer camp setting keeps the tone light and
often playful. A perfectly scenic and thoughtful summer read.
