Creech returns to the free-verse form she employed so successfully in Love That Dog
for this insightful exploration of life's beginning and ending and the joys to be encountered on the journey. Twelve-year-old narrator Annie loves to run but has no interest in competing. She likes hearing the "thump-thump, thump-thump
" of her bare feet hitting the damp grass, and running alongside her friend Max when he joins her, stride for stride. The running becomes a metaphor: Annie's grandfather who once loved to run is now growing forgetful; Max joins the track team and his wish to win drives a wedge between them; and Annie's father and pregnant mother take her with them to hear the baby's heartbeat ("a-whoosh-a-whoosh-a-whoosh
/ very fast/ as if the alien baby/ must be running hard"). Annie describes her own heartbeat as "thump-THUMP, thump-THUMP
," curiously close to the rhythm of her running. Through Annie's observations, Creech eloquently captures the contrast between the baby's embarkation on life and Grandpa's slow withdrawal from it: "It is as if/ he is evaporating/ or shrinking/ disappearing—/ little pieces vanishing each day/ while the alien baby/ grows bigger and bigger." Annie's growing interest in and talent for drawing becomes a theme that develops so subtly that readers may be surprised by the ways in which the threads of the novel come together for a fully satisfying conclusion. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)
Details
Reviewed on: 01/19/2004
Genre: Children's
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-0-06-059757-3
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4025-8482-4
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-085015-9
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-085014-2
Hardcover - 160 pages - 978-0-7862-6902-0
Hardcover - 192 pages - 978-0-7475-6902-2
Library Binding - 180 pages - 978-0-06-054023-4
Open Ebook - 208 pages - 978-0-06-178650-1
Other - 208 pages - 978-0-06-197247-8
Other - 208 pages - 978-0-06-178655-6
Paperback - 208 pages - 978-0-06-054024-1
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 208 pages - 978-0-06-178653-2
Prebound-Sewn - 180 pages - 978-0-7569-5114-6
