Penny From Heaven

Penny from Heaven
by Jennifer L Holm
274 Pages

Penny is a young Italian girl that lives with her mother and her mother’s parents. Her father died when she was a baby so she doesn’t remember him much. Her mother and her grandparents will not tell her anything about him because it upsets her mother to talk or hear about him. Penny gets to spend time with her father’s side of the family too. This side of her family is Italian. Her father had many brothers and they all have unique characteristics. For example, her Uncle Dominic lives in his car. Anyways, the main thing this book is about is Penny trying to find out more about her father. Penny spends her summer break with her cousin Frankie. They get into all kinds of trouble together. One day they are in her grandmother’s basement (her father’s mother) and Penny is trying to operate the Wringer Washer. Penny gets her arm stuck in the Wringer and has to be rushed to the hospital. While in the hospital she learns the truth about her father. She is glad that she finally knows what really happened.

Personal Rating-4.5

The book was a little on the boring side in that the chapters were long and basically told the same information again and again. I do like this book though because it gives information about a different culture. Penny’s father was Italian. The reader gets to see how the Italian family celebrated birthdays or how they mourned deaths. Penny’s father died in an internment camp because he was Italian and owned a radio that he for some reason was not supposed to have. This opens the reader up to hatred for no reason. This would be a good book to read in order to find more out about a different culture and a little bit about past history.

The Bracelet

The Bracelet
by Yoshiko Uchida
Illustrated by Joanna Yardley
32 Pages

This story is about a young Japanese-American girl named Emi. Emi and her family are forced to move because the government does not trust them because they are Japanese. Emi and her family have to leave behind everything the love and know. Emi’s best friend Laura gives her a braclet as a going away gift. She tells her to wear it and think of her. Emi and her family leave their home and move to the interment camp they are required to live in. Here Emi realizes she has lost the bracelet her friend gave her. She becomes so terribly upset. However, Emi realizes that maybe she doesn’t need the bracelet to remember her friend, she has memories in her heart to remember her old friend, home and life.

Personal Rating-5

This book is an excellent source to use to teach children about differences in races. It demonstrates how people disliked other races for no reason. This book could be used to teach children that you should not judge someone by the way they look. You should really get to know someone before you form opinions about them. Children could relate to the main character Emi. She had to leave behind her whole life because the government thought she couldn’t be trusted. Students will wonder why they thought they couldn’t trust her.