Tag: John-Jude-Palencar • BookLikes

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review 2019-03-06 14:42

Heaven - Angela Johnson,John Jude Palencar

Heaven, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Picked up from the library for a Black History Month Readathon.

The Characters:

Marley:
Moms, Pops, Butchy, Uncle Jack

The Story:

I didn’t understand what was going on in this book, so much so that I skipped from page 86 to the last chapter in the book. It’s full of I guess poetic prose but to me it’s full of half thoughts and half stories. I prefer my writing more straight forward.

From what I gather, Marly is a young lady living in the town of Heaven. Through a happenstance she finds out her world isn’t really what she thought it was. (view spoiler) Marley understandably has a lot of emotions about this. In the end she seems to come to peace with her past and is looking forward to the future.

The Random Thoughts:

The Score Card:

description

2.5 Stars

2019

text 2016-03-21 03:13

Text Annotation

lflores13

Citation:

Johnson, A. (1998). Heaven. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Annotation: Marley was a perfectly happy 14-year-old until she discovered that the people she thought were her parents are actually her aunt and uncle, and that her Uncle Jack is her biological father. As she redefines who she is, and who her family is, Marley becomes an astute observer of other families and their relationships with one another. By seeing the love between other families, she knows that the love of her parents for her is genuine.

Author's Information: Angela Johnson was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, but raised in Windham, Ohio; the only girl in a family of five. She now lives in Northeastern Ohio in a hundred-year-old house full of plants. When not writing she travels. On one of her trips to the California desert the inspiration for her first novel, Toning the Sweep came about.

Awards: Coretta Scott King Author Award, 1998

Level: 6-8 grade

Genre: Fiction

african american literature

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review 2009-08-01 00:00

Heaven

EricaO

I expected a lot more from this book.
Having been in a situation similar to Marley's, I felt I'd be able to really appreciate and understand the story.
Also, I like Angela Johnson's writing and the book got a Coretta Scott King award.
Sadly, I wasn't impressed by this particular story.
I remember what it had felt like to find out my parents weren't who I'd thought. It's a really big thing to take on as a young person and there's a lot of reconfiguration of life, beliefs and...well, everything. I didn't feel Marley's character adequately portrayed the inner turmoil that shakes a girl up when she finds out she's not who she thought. Granted, some of that did come through, but it felt quick and painless, almost glossed-over.
I expected to learn more about her relationship with Sugar, about Sugar's relationship with her family, about Feather's mother. I just wanted there to be more and it seemed too pat, too sweet, too dream-like, where everything's pretty and nothing means anything.