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Summary:

As she turns twelve during the summer of 1953, Penny gains new insights into herself and her family while also learning a secret about her father's death. It's 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. But nothing's that easy in Penny's family. For starters, she can't go swimming because her mother's afraid she'll catch polio at the pool. To make matters worse, her favorite uncle is living in a car. Her Nonny cries every time her father's name is mentioned. And the two sides of her family aren't speaking to each other! Inspired by Newbery Honor winner Jennifer Holm's own Italian American family, Penny from Heaven is a shining story about the everyday and the extraordinary, about a time in America's history, not all that long ago, when being Italian meant that you were the enemy. But most of all, it's a story about families--about the things that tear them apart and bring them together. And Holm tells it with all the richness and the layers, the love and the laughter of a Sunday dinner at Nonny's. So pull up a chair and enjoy the feast! Buon appetito!

Table of Contents:

• Best seat in the house
• The lucky bean
• Mrs. Morelli's brains
• A man who can fix a toilet
• The luckiest fella ever
• Uncles, uncles everywhere
• The translator
• Nonny's underwear
• The slider
• The water boy's treasure
• More peas, please
• No poking
• Better than angels
• All for the best
• A punishment worse than death
• So this is heaven
• Dumb and unlucky
• The last person on earth
• The bomb
• What's in a name

• A lucky girl
• A regular Norman Rockwell family.

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Author/Creator:

Holm, Jennifer L.

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Penny from heaven [by Holm, J.L.]

General Notes:

Newbery Honor Book, 2007

Audience:

Preteens
Children

Physical Description:

274 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Call Numbers:

JFic H7459p

ISBNs:

037583687X
9780375836879
0375936874 (lib. bdg.)
9780375936876 (lib. bdg.)
0375836896 (pbk.)
9780375836893 (pbk.)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2005013896

OCLC Numbers:

60664247