In the Author's Note, Jennifer Holm reveals that many of the people and events in Penny from Heavenwere inspired by her own family's history-and she's included pages and pages of photos from her family album, which was a super-nice touch. She does mention the fact that her mother hardly ever talks about her father, and never talks about the circumstances of his death-that in itself was enough to alert me to the fact that there was Rough Stuff Ahead. The story itself starts off quiet and lightly comic: Penny tells the reader about her various family members and has some adventures with her cousin Frankie. My affection for Holm's characters just sort of crept up on me-I hadn't realized how much I cared about them until Something Bad Happened and I found myself crying.

I don't know why this bothers her so much you'd think she'd be happy I visit my father, but it has the opposite effect. Like when she finds out that the uncles have taken me to Shady Grove Cemetery. Mother is always asking me this or that about my father's family, and I have to try to figure out what she means, like it's a different language.

(The food is much, MUCH better on the Italian side, though.) But although the two families try to avoid being negative about each other around Penny, the separation is hard on her: Penny spends a lot of time with both families and loves them both very much. Her father's side of the family-the Italian Catholics-live within walking distance.Įver since her father's death the two sides of the family have avoided each other.

Penny lives with her mother, her mother's parents ('plain old American, and Methodist') and the family dog, 15-year-old Scarlett O'Hara. It's just that I'm named after that Bing Crosby song 'Pennies from Heaven,' and when you're named after something, you can't help but think about it. I'm only eleven, and I don't plan on dying until I'm at least a hundred. Not because of the usual reasons, though. That's the only advantage that I can see to being dead: You get the best seat in the house. The Brooklyn Dodgers always win, and I have the best seat in the house, right behind the Dodgers' dugout. In my Heaven there's butter pecan ice cream and swimming pools and baseball games. My idea of Heaven has nothing to do with clouds or angels.

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm