From My Bookshelf: Heartbeat, Flipped

This month I’m only featuring two titles From My Bookshelf – with good reason, of course. The two books, Heartbeat by Sharon Creech and Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen, have a single subject on their respective covers; the former is exceptionally drawn and the latter is full of whimsy. I have read both of these books, but they are certainly due for a re-read (and maybe an un-haul, but I won’t dwell on that now). 

Heartbeat
Sharon Creech

If you know me and/or are familiar with my blog you know that Sharon Creech is one of my favorite authors of young people’s literature; I should have devoted one of these From My Bookshelf posts to her, honestly. Heartbeat may have been the first hardcover book I ever owned, and even if Sharon Creech was not the author, I would have asked for it (the book was published in 2004, a time well before I had any money of my own) solely because of the cover – well, the jacket anyway. I used to strictly avoid taking the dust jackets off the few hardcover books I owned, which is a shame because the actual cover is bright orange and the title is imprinted in shiny gold. I was also drawn to this book because I was super obsessed with reading any books about families, and Heartbeat is definitely that:

“Run run run. That’s what twelve-year-old Annie loves to do. When she’s barefoot and running, she can hear her heart beating…thump-THUMP, thump-THUMP. It’s a rhythm that makes sense in a year when everything’s shifting: Her mother is pregnant, her grandfather is forgetful, and her best friend, Max, is always moody. Everything is changing, just like the apple Annie’s been assigned to draw a hundred times.

Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech masterfully weaves this story about a young girl beginning to understand the many rhythms of life and how she fits within them.”

Side note: here I sit four days into my 26th year and this sounds exactly like the type of book I need right now. Books really have a way of sneaking up on you like that, don’t they?

Flipped 
Wendelin Van Draanen

I started re-reading Flipped last month (or was it in July…?) but it didn’t hold my attention; I think it’s going to have to be a book I cozy up with in the fall or [more likely] the winter. Anyway, this is a classic Scholastic [Book Fair] edition, and look how cute that little chick is! This is [most likely] the first book I read in which the chapters switch perspectives, and I remember having fun reading from both Bryce and Julianna’s (the protagonists) points of view. This is what it’s about:

“When Bryce Loski moves into the neighborhood, Juli Baker flips. He’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen. As elementary school gives way to middle school, Juli’s crush persists as does Bryce’s avoidance of his annoying neighbor. And then they start to see each other for who they truly are. Told in alternating boy/girl chapters, this is a story about passion, perspective, and family, and getting to the heart of what matters.”

Are you familiar with either of these books and/or authors? Let me know in a comment below!