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    Sweeping Up the Heart
    Sweeping Up the Heart
    Sweeping Up the Heart
    Audiobook2 hours

    Sweeping Up the Heart

    Written by Kevin Henkes

    Narrated by Lisa Flanagan

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From two-time Newbery Honor and New York Times–bestselling author Kevin Henkes, this timeless novel about loss, loneliness, and friendship tells the story of the spring break that changes seventh-grader Amelia Albright’s life forever.

    Amelia Albright dreams about going to Florida for spring break like everyone else in her class, but her father—a cranky and stubborn English professor—has decided Florida is too much adventure.

    Now Amelia is stuck at home with him and her babysitter, the beloved Mrs. O’Brien. The week ahead promises to be boring, until Amelia meets Casey at her neighborhood art studio. Amelia has never been friends with a boy before, and the experience is both fraught and thrilling. When Casey claims to see the spirit of Amelia’s mother (who died ten years before), the pair embarks on an altogether different journey in their attempt to find her.

    Using crisp, lyrical, literary writing and moments of humor and truth, award-winning author Kevin Henkes deftly captures how it feels to be almost thirteen.

    With themes of family, death, grief, creativity, and loyalty, Sweeping Up the Heart is for readers of Kate DiCamillo, Rebecca Stead, Lauren Wolk, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and Pam Muñoz Ryan.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 19, 2019
    ISBN9780062886873
    Author

    Kevin Henkes

    Kevin Henkes has been praised both as a writer and as an illustrator and is the recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lasting contribution to literature for children. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon; Caldecott Honors for Waiting and Owen; two Newbery Honors, one for Olive’s Ocean and one for The Year of Billy Miller; and Geisel Honors for Waiting and Penny and Her Marble. His other books include The World and Everything in It, A House, A Parade of Elephants, Chrysanthemum, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.

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    Reviews for Sweeping Up the Heart

    3.5/5

    33 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5

      Feb 14, 2025

      Far from Henkes best. I've read these tropes before, and not just in Henkes' works but in others. Not just the mom who died of cancer but the dad who can't talk to the daughter, the mystery, art as healing, etc. The adult characters are bafflingly one-sided. Casey seems younger than 12, or at least younger than Amelia. (To be fair, maybe most 12 yo book characters seem older than their age and these kids are more true.) And it floored me to learn that Amelia had never asked to look at the box of mementos of her mom; that makes no sense to me.

      A less jaded reader than I may like it better.
    • 4/5

      Mar 17, 2022

      Twelve-year-old Amelia's world is pretty small: her mother is dead, her father is emotionally distant, and she relies on the grandmotherly support of their housekeeper, Mrs. O'Brien. It's spring break, and Amelia wishes they could go to Florida (or to France, like her best friend Natalie!), but it appears that she will go no farther than the pottery studio a few blocks away, where she often spends her time losing herself in her art. When Amelia arrives at the studio that week, she meets Casey, the owner's nephew. The two form an immediate friendship -- or is it something more? -- and, on an excursion to a nearby coffee shop, they see a woman who looks surprisingly like Amelia... or, more accurately, like Amelia's mother. When Amelia continues to see the woman around the neighborhood, she starts to wonder: is this woman following Amelia? Does she have a message for her? Is Amelia's mother really dead?

      Henkes' trademark writing style is gentle, reassuring, with emotional depth, and that's definitely what you'll find in this book. From the cover and the brevity of the book, I expected it to appeal to a younger audience, but the age of the characters and the first crush element sets it in the middle grade range (ages 9-11, I'd say). That may be why it hasn't gotten a lot of attention at my library. It's also set in the spring of 1999, as there are a couple of references to Y2K. I thought maybe it had been published then, but no, it came out in 2019. I'm not sure why it needed to be set 20 years in the past, as it doesn't have a major impact on the story. All that to say, it's a sweet book, but I understand why it hasn't been flying off the shelf.
    • 3/5

      Mar 11, 2020

      Amelia wanted to spend her spring break in Florida or France but her father, who doesn’t like to travel, won’t do it. Instead her spring break turns out to be more eventful than expected. Amelia meets 12-year-old Casey at the art studio she frequents. During a game of making stories about people they see on the street, they spot a woman who looks like Amelia’s mother, who died of cancer when Amelia was 2 years old. Amelia has no memories of her but her imagination is stirred by the woman she dubs “Epiphany.” Henkes always has the ability to imbue the quiet and mundane with significant meaning. He expresses the full import of vague but insistent feelings of children.
    • 3/5

      Mar 24, 2019

      Thank you to the publisher and edelweiss for this DRC.
      This is a sweet story about love and loss and how those two things shape our interactions with the people in our lives.
      I empathized with the main character, Amelia. I saw her clay creations, many of which were identical, as a reflection of how she was trying to hold on to what was comfortable in her life. Change can be difficult, especially when it has to do with family.
      I did feel as though Amelia presented more like a 5th grader than a 7th grader and there were many times where I thought the author could have delved farther into the story, but I appreciate the overall message.