If I had known “normal” could disappear so quickly,
would I have appreciated it more? Would I have been less afraid to raise my hand
in class? Would I have let my mother’s complaints roll off my
back?
Looking back to how it was before everything changed, I
think I’d have done things differently. I’d have stopped to enjoy the smell of
the cut grass on the soccer field—and been nicer to my brothers. I’d have eaten
that hot fudge sundae, even when I felt kind of fat.
But it’s easy to analyze this stuff when you have the
perspective I do now.
I think when you’re sixteen, you believe you’re
invincible. Or immortal. Maybe it’s both?
When the most stressful thing in your life is winning a
soccer game or what to wear to school, you take some really basic things for
granted.
Like the love of your parents.
Or hanging with your friends.
Or the beating of your heart . . .
Change
of Heart by Shari Maurer
Genre:
YA/Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
Release
Date: December 8th, 2013
Published
by Createspace
When
you’re 16 years old, it never occurs to you that you might die. Emmi Miller’s
got a fabulous life. She has tons of friends, does great in school and is an
all-star soccer player who played in Europe last summer. It even looks like Sam
Hunter, a totally cute baseball player, might be interested in her. And then she
gets a virus. No biggy, right? Until the virus goes to her heart and weakens it
so much that, without a transplant, Emmi will die. Will Emmi get a heart in
time? Is Sam too good to be true? What about her new friend Abe, who has also
had a transplant and guides her through these scary times — is he just being
supportive or is there more going on between them? And will Emmi realize it
before it’s too late?
The
Author
Shari Maurer did her undergraduate work at Duke
University, studying English and Film and Video. In graduate school at NYU, she
realizedunnamed that while her Dramatic Writing classmates were all writing
serious plays, movies or sitcoms, she kept drifting toward “After School
Specials” and she decided to do her internship at the Children’s Television
Workshop. She wound up staying there for six years, working on Sesame Street
productions around the world.
After her daughter was born with a heart defect, Shari
got together with a friend to write The Parents’ Guide to Children’s Congenital
Heart Defects which was published by Random House’s Three River Press and named
one of Booklist’s “Top Health Books of 2001.”
Shari segued into teen fiction with her novel, Change
of Heart, about a 16 year old soccer player who needs a heart transplant. Both
of these books were made easier to write because Shari’s husband, Mat, who she
met in summer camp when they were 17, is a cardiologist.
In addition to writing young adult novels, Shari spent
two years as the “Moms Talk” columnist at the New City Patch, an on-line local
newspaper. She got her inspiration for the column, as well as for her books,
from her three teenagers, Lissie, Josh and Eric and started the newest chapter
in her life when she became the mom of a college
student.
Website: http://www.sharimaurer.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shari.b.maurer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharimaurer
The
Giveaway:
Signed paperback and
$25 B&N gift certificate.
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