BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTwelve-year-old Annie loves running barefoot, especially with her best friend Max, tracing the same route past a stone church, four white birches, a creek, and an old red barn almost every day. At home, life is changing. Her mother is expecting a baby Annie has nicknamed the alien, and her grandfather, who has lived with the family since her grandmother died, keeps losing track of memories he has carried for decades, some days clearly and some days not at all. Annie is also working through a strange new art assignment, drawing the same apple every single day for one hundred days, dodging a track coach who will not stop trying to recruit her, and figuring out a friendship with Max that keeps shifting shape as he pushes himself harder toward a goal he will not fully explain. Told in short verses from Annie's point of view, Heartbeat follows her through one eventful year of running, family, and growing up, "thump-thump" step by step.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Heartbeat
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Heartbeat. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a family nickname the unborn baby the alien baby?
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Annie asks her mother whether being pregnant feels like having an alien inside her, and the name sticks with the whole family. Her mother later asks them to stop, since the baby can hear and might get its feelings hurt.
- First half
In what book does an art teacher say, "No apple is ordinary"?
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Miss Freely says it when Kaylee asks whether they are really going to draw ordinary apples. The assignment is to take one apple home and draw that same apple every day for one hundred days, and Annie finds more in it the longer she looks.
- First half
In what book does a boy stare at a girl as if she has sprouted fangs?
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
After Max calls Annie a chicken for refusing to try out, she asks him why someone always has to win and someone always has to run faster. The question is so foreign to Max that he shakes his head and tells her she just does not get it.
- Second half
In what book can a mother choose between the Colonial, the Modern, and the Regency rooms?
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Annie's family tours the birthing center where her mother plans to deliver, and it looks like a house instead of a hospital. Her mom picks the Colonial room with its four poster bed over the sharp angled Modern one and the extremely flouncy Regency.
- Second half
In what book does an old man point at his own photograph and ask, "Who is that boy?"
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Grandpa calls Annie in a fright and points at the picture of himself as a boy, standing with his trophy. He does not recognize himself anymore and says the boy is staring at him, and Annie has to take the photo off the wall to calm him down.
- Near the end
In what book is a girl pulled away from a race because her mother's baby is coming?
✓ Answer
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Mrs. Cobber comes shouting across the field and tugs at Annie's sleeve just as Max is passing runner after runner. Annie sees that the winner is not Max but never gets to see his face, and that missed moment causes trouble between them later.
