Module 6: Penny from Heaven

Book Summary: Penny is a pre-teen who is loved by her father's side of the family and her mother's.  She lived with her mother, grandmother, and witty grandfather in a house in New Jersey.  Her father's side is Italian and they all spoil her unconditionally in an efforts to replace that love that she missed from her father.  He died before she was born and is the reason for her name.  When he was away in he told his family that she was like a penny from heaven. Her mother's side have resentment towards Penny's fathers side because her mother feels they are the reason he is dead.  They tell Penny that her father died because he was sick but later on in the story once she is in a tragic accident.  The truth is revealed and the families reunite and make amends with each other.  Her spontaneous cousin Frankie is like her best friend and gets her through her hard and good times throughout the story. 

Reference: Holm, J. (2007). Penny from heaven. New York, NY: Random House Books for Young Readers.

Impression: This historical fiction story was great in meaning, but slow in plot.  It was stagnant in the middle and did not really pick up speed until the last four chapters.  The back and forth of scenes, from her father's side to mother's made for an uninteresting page turner. Although I felt the book was good overall, it did not pick up and make me want to NOT put it down.  The conversation dialogue did not flow that well in some parts of the book, which is one reason that I felt it became stagnant.  The vocabulary was easy to read and I do feel that a pre-teen to teen would enjoy the humor that the books shared from Frankie. His character and the grandfather is what kept me reading the book. I wanted to know what they were going to do and say.  

The story was of a true story from the author's own family history.  Her grandmother was Penny, but she was named after her father's mother who in the story was known as Nonny.  Her real name is Genevieve but they called her Jenny.  She gives the history of how the Italians were treated during this time and that's where the influence of the story came from.  There are pictures from her family that influenced the characters in her book and gives you a visual of how they looked. This actually brings the story together and gives it home.  I would recommend this book as a read aloud only because it may have more leverage if read out loud with vocal inflections.

Professional Review:

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Penny lives with her "plain old American" mother and grandparents, but she has an open invitation to visit her deceased father's Italian family, where the delicious aromas are as inviting as the boisterous relatives who welcome her. Against the backdrop of these contrasting 1950s households, the author of Newbery Honor Book Our Only May Amelia (1999) charts the summer of Penny's twelfth birthday, marked by hapless episodes as well as serious tensions arising from the estranged families' refusal to discuss her father's death. Penny is a low-key character, often taking a backseat role in escapades with high-spirited cousin Frankie. However, Holm impressively wraps pathos with comedy in this coming-of-age story, populated by a cast of vivid characters (a burping, farting grandpa; an eccentric uncle who lives in his car--"not exactly normal for people in New Jersey"). Concluding with a photo-illustrated endnote explaining Holm's inspirations in family history, this languidly paced novel will appeal most to readers who appreciate gentle, episodic tales with a nostalgic flavor. Hand selling may be necessary to overcome the staid jacket illustration. Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Kirkus Review
Penny, almost 12, is caught between two extremes: her mother’s small, uptight, WASP family, and her dead father’s large, exuberant, Italian one. Summers, she moves freely between them, mediating as best she can between the two. Her best pal is her cousin Frankie, with whom she delivers groceries from her uncle’s store, worships at the shrine of the Brooklyn Dodgers and gets into trouble. No one talks about her father’s absence, and that’s beginning to bother her more and more. And even worse, her mother has begun dating the milkman. Holm has crafted a leisurely, sprawling period piece, set in the 1950s and populated by a large cast of offbeat characters. Penny’s present-tense narration is both earthy and observant, and her commentary on her families’ eccentricities sparkles. Various scrapes and little tragedies lead to a nearly catastrophic encounter with a clothes wringer and finally the truth about her father’s death. It takes so long to get there that the revelation seems rather anticlimactic, but getting to know Penny and her families makes the whole eminently worthwhile. (Fiction. 9-13)

References:
Kirkus Review. (2006). [Review of the book Penny from heaven, by J. Holm]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jennifer-l-holm/penny-from-heaven/

Mattson, J. (n.d.). [Review of the book Penny from heaven, by J. Holm]. Booklist. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/Penny-from-Heaven-Jennifer-L-Holm/pid=1614626

Library uses: I would use this book to discuss family trees and how families can be different.  Fourth graders could read the book and do a research project on their own family history using resources from research databases.