When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled, including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differently, through her still-beating heart.
When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different-dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy-her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan's life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on. Told in alternating viewpoints, In a Heartbeat tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart. In the tradition of Lurlene McDaniel, Jenny Downham, and Gabrielle Zevin comes a touching novel of last regrets and second chances. Loretta Ellsworth is the author of two novels for young readers, both published by Henry Holt. THE SHROUDING WOMAN was named to the 2003 Amelia Bloomer Project List, was a CCBC Choice, and a 2005 Rebecca Caudill Nominee. IN SEARCH OF MOCKINGBIRD was nominated for Best Books for Young Adults, Teen's Top Ten, was a Midwest Bookseller's spring/summer pick, and won the 2007 Midwest Bookseller's Choice Award Honor Book for Children's Literature. It was also picked up by the Book-of-the-Month Club, was named to the 2008-09 Tayshas Texas List, is on the 2008 New York Library List of Teenage Books and is a 2008 Notable Children's Book in Language Arts.
