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Book Review of Searching for David's Heart: A Christmas Story

Searching for David's Heart: A Christmas Story
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Product Details

* Pub. Date: November 1998
* Publisher:Scholastic, Inc.
* Format: Hardcover, 220pp

* ISBN-13: 9780613120906
* ISBN: 0613120906

Searching for David's Heart is about a young girl named Darcy who loves her older brother David. She is very shy and looks up to the confidence that David has. He always treats her well and she feels like she is a major part of his life until he gets a girlfriend. Once David falls for his new girl, he spends less time with Darcy and her best friend Sam. Darcy begins to feel jealous and left out. On Darcy's birthday, everything seems to go wrong. David goes to the park with his girlfriend leaving Darcy at home to pout. Darcy realizes that she was acting immature and decides to go to the park to apologize. When she gets to the park, she finds David and his girlfriend kissing. She argues with David and runs away recklessly through the streets. David chases after her and an accident happens. He is hit by a car and killed. He is an organ donor and his heart goes off to another person to live. Darcy blames herself for the accident and can't seem to handle David's death. In an attempt to hold onto David, Sam and Darcy run away to find David's heart. The majority of the story is then based upon Sam and Darcy's travels and eventual meet up with the boy who has David's heart.
My students all really liked this story, but I was not overly impressed. Darcy is not a likable character. Her feelings are easily identifiable and the book is a very easy read, but I spent more time not liking Darcy than anything else. She is constantly mean to everyone that she cares about. She is a selfish little brat and I'm not certain I agree that there is a major change in her character, as the story is meant to show. Overall, the story moved quickly but is not something that I would every read again. I would suggest this to a younger audience or a reluctant reader.
3/5 stars