Penny From Heaven - Shir Lavian

Penny From Heaven

By: Shir Lavian

The book I read is called Penny from Heaven by May Amelia. The reason I chose to read this book is because I was at Borders looking for a book to read and I saw Penny From Heaven. It was a Newberry Honor book so I knew it would be fascinating. I started reading the first few pages while I was at Borders and I couldn't put it down. Penny From Heaven is an amazing book and I was always motivated to read more and more.

This book is about an eleven year old girl named Penny living in the 1950's with her family. Her father passed away a few years before and her mother is frightened by many silly things. For example, Penny is not aloud to go to the public pool because her mother is afraid she'll catch polio. Penny loves swimming, the Dodgers, and butter pecan ice cream. Her best friend is her cousin Frankie. She lives with her grandma, grandpa, mother, and dog named Scarlet O' Hara. Penny has many uncles but her favorite is Uncle Dominic. He is very superstitious and always gives Penny gifts. He gave her a lucky bean that she carries with her for almost the whole book. Penny's mother got a new boyfriend and it was their milkman, Mr. Mulligan. Although her mother is in love with him, Penny doesn't like him very much because she doesn't think anyone can replace her father. He tries to be very nice to Penny but she is not interested in getting to know him. One day Penny goes out and when she comes back, her family tells her that her dog, Scarlet O' Hara has died. Penny was devastated; her mother had Scarlet O' Hara from before Penny was born. In the middle of the story, Frankie and Penny look for a treasure in the basement of one of their uncle's butcher shop. They both work there. When they were down in the basement Uncle Dominic was in charge of them and making sure they were ok. Unfortunately Penny's arm got caught on one of the slicing machines and she ends up getting stuck there screaming with her arm trapped in the blades. When they finally get her arm out, everyone rushes her to the hospital and the doctor isn't sure if she will ever be able to use her arm again. After a few weeks, there is no progress with her arm and everyone is beginning to doubt that it will ever work again. One day Penny's family told her that Uncle Dominic was missing. Mr. Mulligan comes to visit Penny at the hospital and brings her butter pecan ice cream. They talk for a while and that is when Penny starts realizing that she shouldn't have been rude to him and that he is a very nice man. While Penny is alone thinking in the hospital, she drops her lucky bean that uncle Dominic gave her. She reaches for it and… If you want to find out what happens to Penny's arm and if it starts functioning again or what happens to uncle Dominic, read the book Penny from Heaven.

The quote I picked was when Penny was at the hospital and she says to herself, "I imagine someone else, some other girl who has a regular life, who has two working arms. The girl I used to be." When Penny said this, I think that it made her remember the days that she had two functioning arms and how much she missed those days. Also I think that it made her realize how much she had that she never appreciated until then. I think it has significance to the story because it shows how Penny felt and how miserable she was that her arm was most likely not going to work anymore.

This book is an intriguing book that encourages you to read more and more. Out of 5 pennies I would give it a 5. One penny for captivating the readers, one for the overall idea, one for explaining the characters very well, and the last two for including many different and random things in the story and having them come together and make sense in the end.

To wrap it all up, I recommend this book for sixth grade and up. I don't think anyone younger would be able to understand the whole story and what is going on most of the time. Also I think that Penny's arm getting sliced would be a little bit too violent for any age younger. Lastly if you can't handle sad stories that would make you cry, I wouldn't recommend this book for you.