SuitabookFamily silence and belonging
Penny moves between her mother’s family and her late father’s Italian family while adults avoid discussing her father and the families are estranged.
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Book details
Jennifer L. Holm - Author
This is a family-centred historical novel balancing lively summer activities and affectionate extended-family life with secrecy, bereavement, divided loyalties, and prejudice connected to wartime Italian American experience.
It's1953 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!From the Hardcover edition.
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Sign in for personalised guidanceThis is a family-centred historical novel balancing lively summer activities and affectionate extended-family life with secrecy, bereavement, divided loyalties, and prejudice connected to wartime Italian American experience.
Penny moves between her mother’s family and her late father’s Italian family while adults avoid discussing her father and the families are estranged.
The novel places Penny’s family life in 1953 while addressing a period when Italian Americans could be treated as enemies.
Give some context before reading about how people of Italian heritage were treated as enemies during wartime, and be ready to pause around grief, family silence, illness fears, and the later revelation about Penny’s father.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: some draft conclusions still depend on unresolved evidence.
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