Girlhearts [Hardcover]

Norma Fox Mazer (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

Mom held me around the waist, and I bent and kissed her. "I love you, honey," she said. "Love you, too." It was automatic. That's what I can't forget.

When a heart attack takes her mom's life, Sarabeth suddenly loses the only family and home she has ever known. Cynthia and Billy, friends of her mother, take in Sarabeth to live with them and their baby in their tiny one-bedroom apartment. Before long it becomes clear to Sarabeth that she is a burden to them, an intrusion in their lives. She wants to leave, but where can she go?

With startling emotional accuracy and depth, Newbery Honor-winning author Norma Fox Mazer captures what it's like to lose everything but the memories of a home and a mother, and to gain the courage to heal deep wounds.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One moment 14-year-old Sarabeth Silver's life is all her own, quirky mom and all. The next minute, she's spinning out of control, her mother dead of a heart attack at 30, family friends debating who should take her in, her home rented to another family, her stuff in storage. And Sarabeth herself changes. She becomes jagged, cynical. Her funny, loyal friends stand by her side, but nothing is the same anymore. The loss of her mother, conversations with her new friend James, and her uncomfortable living situation with her mom's best friend, her husband, and their baby--in a one-bedroom apartment--inspire Sarabeth to embark (with great trepidation) on a journey to trace her mysterious roots. The town where her parents grew up--and were later shunned--reveals some very unexpected secrets that ultimately provide the starting place for Sarabeth's healing.

Continuing the story of Sarabeth begun in Silver, award-winning novelist Norma Fox Mazer plumbs the depths of adolescent souls. Girlhearts unflinchingly explores the unthinkable, refusing to drift into sentimentality or easy fixes. Mazer's keen eye for what is important makes her one of the finest, most tuned-in young-adult authors around. She is also the author of the Newbery Honor Book, After the Rain and many other fine titles for older readers. (Ages 12 to 16) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Exploring the aftermath of a family tragedy, this contemporary problem novel provides the intense psychological drama Mazer fans crave, but lacks the suspenseful edge of her After the Rain and Out of Control. The opening chapters will instantly command readers' sympathy and rapt attention, as narrator Sarabeth describes her young, widowed mother's heart attack and subsequent death. The pace slows considerably after the initial crisis has passed and the author focuses on the 13-year-old's misery. With Sarabeth's vision blurred by grief, readers will need patience to develop a clear sense of the minor characters, among them Sarabeth's loyal girlfriends, her new friend James and the adults who decide her future. As Sarabeth is placed in the overcrowded home of her mother's best friend and assigned a social worker, Mazer conveys the heroine's feelings of shock, numbness, loneliness and powerlessness with her usual authenticity. But there are few surprises here; from the moment Sarabeth explains that her parents were essentially disowned by their families, most readers will anticipate that an encounter with these previously unmet relatives will spur Sarabeth's emotional recovery. The strength of this novel lies in its intimate recognition of the way adolescents think and feel. Ages 10-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688133509
• ISBN-13: 978-0688133504
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,314,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

NORMA FOX MAZER is the award-winning author of many novels for young people. She has been honored with the Christopher Award, a Newbery Honor, the Edgar Allen Poe Award, and a National Book Award nomination. She and her husband, novelist Harry Mazer, divide their time between Jamesville, New York, and New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars girlhearts review, January 12, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Girlhearts (Hardcover)

Girlhearts, a book by Norma Fox Mazer is a very touching story. It's about an unwealthy 13-year-old girl, Sarabeth. She and her mother live in a small trailer by themselves. Her mother unexpectedly dies from a heart attack one day. Sarabeth moves in with a family whom she had known her whole life. Sarabeth goes through the hardships of being yanked outn of her home and put into another while facing her mother's death.
For anyone who has ever lost anyone this book is for you. I have lost family members in the past, and I could relate to the way that Sarabeth felt.
In the book, Mazer writes with a technique that I found confusing: she doesn't specify who is talking during the dialogue. However, if you were as interested in the story as I was, then you'll enjoy reading through the text to figure out the confusing parts. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever gone through any kind of loss even if it isn't a death. This book really illustrates that everyone goes through hard times but the better you deal with them, the better of a person you will be afterwards.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice Follow Up To One Of My Favorite Teen Reads, August 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Girlhearts (Hardcover)

I read "Silver", the first novel about Sarabeth Silver, in junior high, and have saved my paperback copy along with a number of other childhood favorites for occasional re-reading. I found the sequel to be a pleasant, quick read, with believable characters and a good storyline. However, I too was bothered by several inconsistencies, some of which were so obvious they detracted from my enjoyment of the book. The age thing really annoyed me - why did everyone become a year younger? Many of the things Sarabeth and her friends do and say seem more consistent with 15 year olds (which is the age they would really be a year after "Silver" took place) than 13 year olds. "Silver" was supposed to have taken place a year earlier, and yet Cynthia's baby is a toddler, though she only became pregnant at the end of the previous book. And why do Sarabeth's friends no longer call her Silver, her nickname in the first novel? These things may not be a big deal, but I read "Silver" so many times I feel I know the characters well, and it bothered me to see so many inaccuracies. I also felt the ending was too rushed - I would have liked to have gotten to know Sarabeth's relatives better, especially Traci. Maybe another sequel is in the works? Flaws aside, I did enjoy the story, and my rating is more like three and a half stars. I certainly recommend the book to anyone who enjoyed "Silver".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Somewhat Satisfying Read, June 15, 2001

By 

"radicalhomeschooler" (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girlhearts (Hardcover)

I purchased Girlhearts because I enjoyed the first book about Sarabeth Silver, 'Silver', when I was a young teenager. Although I am twenty-four now I thought it would be a nice afternoon read and something to keep for my baby daughter's library if the material turned out to be appropriate. However I had a problem with the chronology of these two books. In 'Silver' Sarabeth, the protagonist, is fourteen years old and starting a new high school. 'Girlhearts' is supposed to be Sarabeth one year later so logically she would be fifteen years old. But in 'Girlhearts' Sarabeth is only thirteen years old. This bothered me a bit. Other than that I liked the book, some of the conversation struck me as somewhat unrealistic for thirteen-year-olds, assuming all of Sarabeth's friends also became younger instead of older, but overall it was a good story with a satisfying ending. I also liked that the young girls in this story were not obsessed with boys, romance, sex, clothes, makeup, etc., --Sarabeth and her friends are generally wholesome characters and I would feel comfortable with my daughter reading this book when she is old enough.