Heartbeat

by Norma Fox Mazer, Harry Mazer

Lessons in love and loyalty face Todd Ellerbee--who seems to have everything--as he struggles to discover who he is and learns the meaning of sacrifice

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1989

About the author

Norma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults.

She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.

New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."

Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.

Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...

Reviews

[Michaela Theriren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book three times and each time I get something different out of it:)

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a touching story of love and friendship. My seventh grade self was not prepared for the rather sad storyline, as I cried so hard and my mom thought I was having a nightmare. A beautiful story, nonetheless.

[Wendopolis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

[HannahBeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated the main character and didn't like the girl either. The only good guy in the book died.

[Ava Renaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book, I've maybe read it 15 times at this point. Every time I notice something different and the ending makes me cry.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really wonderful YA novel that has depth and is well written. The only objection I have to it is taking God’s name in vain several times. It deals with relationships in high school.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this novel, a guy asks his best friend to put in a good word with a girl he likes, and in the midst of that errand, the best friend falls in love with the girl himself and can't bear to tell the guy. There's anger and jealousy and then things get sad. And there's also this "junior high" girl, which where I grew up is 6th-8th grade, so I'm picturing an 11-14-year-old, who has fallen madly in love with the high school senior best friend. It turns out she's 15 and he's 17, so it's not too weird, but her age isn't revealed until really late in the novel. I like the friendship they developed for the most part, and that these authors recognize teen relationships as complicated and real, but this book ends up being pretty sad and strange.

[Natalie Schloss · Rating 3 out of 5]

just a random book i picked up at the library like a decade ago and i decided to reread. it was fine, i felt like we saw more of amos' and hilary's personalities than tod even though it was mostly in his pov. maybe BECAUSE it was in his pov. am wondering how old jen is supposed to be because it says junior high which means like 14 tops to me and he's nearly 18 in this book so uhhh if she was like 15 to his 17 i suppose that would be alright. i loved when she called him out for basically dropping their friendship

anyway love triangles can be so frustrating sometimes, like especially in this case. just communicate with one another! i do get why tod didn't immediately tell amos but as it went on it was like come onnnn. anyway ultimately sad and the ending was a little random like i guess it makes sense since tod had done a lot of moving around already but it was just like "oh he's gonna randomly leave everyone behind to see some family it sounds like he's never met"

[Dodong Gallego]

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