The most serious secret is that involving Penny's father and his death. Penny is forbidden to go to the public swimming pool because of the fear of catching polio. Penny From Heaven is more than a summer book or a family love story, because Holm also shows that the 1950s were not a perfect time. Her mother's family is solid American, her father's is Catholic and Italian. Penny is close to both sides of her family yet those two sides barely speak to each other, divided by the loss of her father. Most of the book is about the summer, as Penny and Frankie make their own fun, whether it's hanging out with her father's relatives, listening to her favorite baseball team (the Brooklyn Dodgers), searching for lost treasure or trying to sneak into the forbidden public pool. Penny From Heaven is warm, funny, and real. Penny From Heaven is based on the childhood stories of Holm's grandmother, and Holm has taken that and made it into fiction, into story, with endnotes and photos explaining the "real" story. Frankie and Penny explore their neighborhood with a great deal of freedom, and have summer days during which they can do whatever they want to do: no camp, no lessons, no structure. On the surface, this is a book that is both an ode to old-fashioned summers and a love letter to Holm's grandmother. Penny's father's family lives close by, and she is also close to them. (And isn't the past always a better time?) Penny and her widowed mother live with Penny's maternal grandparents.
We're about to be transported to the past. The cover reflects the 1950s setting, with Penny (almost 12) and her cousin Frankie leaning against a car, Penny daydreaming, while Frankie has a baseball and mitt.
Penny From Heaven appears, at first, to simply be an old-fashioned book. Originally published at The Edge of the Forest, Vol 1, Issue 6, August 2006 Reviewed by Liz Burns, A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
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