Heartbeat

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 9-40

Pages 41-61

Pages 62-82

Pages 83-100

Pages 101-117

Pages 118-128

Pages 129-148

Pages 149-175

Pages 176-199

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Pages 9-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 9-40 Summary

Annie, a 12-year-old girl, loves to run. She especially loves to run barefoot and listen to the rhythms of her footfalls and her breathing. She often runs through her small town with her childhood friend Max, who is one year older than her. Her mother tells her that she was running even before she was born. Annie lives with her parents and her grandfather. Her grandfather says that his brains are like “scrambled eggs” (19), and often forgets who he is or what happened in his past. When he was younger, he also loved to run, but often cannot remember why he quit. Annie’s mother tells her that he was a champion racer who stopped running at 15, and only ran again with her when she was a child. Annie worries that her mother is sick, because she is often nauseous and tired, but learns that she is pregnant. Annie is fascinated by the idea that there is a person growing inside of her mother and imagines that the cells multiplying in her stomach are a horse instead.

In “Moody Max,” Annie reflects on how she does not understand her friend Max, and how he changed after his father left his family. He became quiet and prone to shifts in moods. She remarks that he thinks she is spoiled, because she still has both parents and multiple grandparents. They share a love of running barefoot and spend time together in relative silence, just enjoying their run. After a run one day, Max asks Annie what she wants to do with her life. He claims that he still wants to do what he wanted to do when he was seven; he wants to open a camp for “kids like him” (38). Max reminds her that when she was seven, she said that she wanted to be “Mother of the World” (38). Annie acknowledges that she has no idea what she meant by that at the time. She considers how Max has been consistent in his desires and beliefs, and she feels unsure of herself.

Pages 9-40 Analysis

The free-verse form of Heartbeat is introduced in its first section, “Footfalls.” The narrator, Annie, describes the sensation and rhythm of running, punctuating her lines with “thump-thump, thump-thump” (9). This rhythm of footsteps is also the rhythm of a heartbeat. This rhythmic onomatopoeia reappears whenever Annie runs. The connection between heartbeats and running is made explicit by Annie’s mother, who tells her that she “was running running running / inside her before [Annie] was even born. / She could feel my legs whirling / thump-thump, thump-thump” (13). The conflation of the two rhythms implies that running is a life force for Annie.

Other rhythms are present in the verse—the footstep rhythm is broken up by occasional three-word repetition: “knowing I could fly fly fly / but letting my feet / thump-thump, thump-thump” (9). Here, Annie’s sensory and personal connection with running is made clear, and its importance in her life is evident in it being the first introduction to her character. The following section, “Max,” immediately introduces her friend and neighbor that she runs with each night. They greet each other on their run: “Hey, Annie, he says / and I say, Hey, Max / and we run” (11). This exchange is repeated as a refrain throughout the book, whenever Max and Annie interact. Speech and sound are italicized in Heartbeats, demonstrating a kinship between the rhythms of heartbeat and steps and the rhythms of conversation and relationships.

Annie’s grandfather presumably from a kind of dementia or memory loss, as he is “poorly,” with brains like “scrambled eggs” (19). He, too, was a runner, but struggles to recall his relationship with the sport. Annie’s mother, however, says that he told her that he was a champion racer that stopped at age 15, and then only ran again with her when she was a child. He believed that this was the “only kind of running/that made any sense to him at all” (22). His relationship with running parallels Annie’s. When Annie’s mother becomes pregnant, he repeats that he should hurry up and “kick the bucket” (34) to make room for the baby. This introduces the theme of the circle of life, and Annie’s grandfather and the new baby exist on opposite ends of the cycle.