Heaven (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) [School & Library Binding]

Angela Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000 | Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As in her Gone from Home (reviewed above), Johnson here explores the themes of what makes a place home and which people family. Fourteen-year-old Marley's tranquil life in Heaven, Ohio, turns hellish the day her family receives a letter from Alabama. The note (from the pastor of a church that was destroyed by arson) requests a replacement for Marley's baptismal record, and reveals that "Momma" and "Pops" are really Marley's aunt and uncle, and mysterious Jack (an alleged "uncle" with whom Marley has corresponded but doesn't remember) is her true father. In this montage of Marley's changing perceptions, Johnson presents fragments of the whole picture a little at a time: images of people, places (the Western Union building "1637" steps away from Marley's house) and artifacts (a box filled with love letters between her birth parents) gain significance as Marley begins to make sense of the past and integrate her perceptions into her new identity. The author's poetic metaphors describe a child grasping desperately for a hold on her reality ("It was one of those nights that started to go down before the sun did," she says of the evening the fateful letter arrives). The melding of flashbacks and present-day story line may be confusing initially, but readers who follow Marley's winding path toward revelation will be well rewarded. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-What makes a person who she is? Is it her name, the people she lives with, or is blood the only link to identity? Marley, 14, suddenly plunges head first into these complex questions when she discovers that the people she's been living with her entire life aren't her real parents. Butchy is not her real brother, and her mysterious Uncle Jack, who has been writing her short but beautiful letters for as long as she can remember, turns out to be her real, very absent father. In spare, often poetic prose reminiscent of Patricia MacLachlan's work, Johnson relates Marley's insightful quest into what makes a family. Her extreme anger with her supposed parents, who turn out to be her aunt and uncle, for not telling her the truth, for not being the perfect family that she'd always thought them to be, wars with her knowledge that not even her friend Shoogy Maple's model family is as perfect and beautiful as it seems. The various examples of "family" Marley encounters make her question what's real, what's true, what makes sense, and if any of that really matters as much as the love she continues to feel for her parents in spite of their seeming betrayal. Johnson exhibits admirable stylistic control over Marley's struggle to understand a concept that is often impossible to understand or even to define.
Linda Bindner, formerly at Athens Clarke County Library, GA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 138 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613285174
• ISBN-13: 978-0613285179
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,347,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Angela Johnson is the author of the Coretta Scott King Honor picture book When I Am Old with You; as well as A Sweet Smell of Roses, illustrated by Eric Velasquez; Just Like Josh Gibson, illustrated by Beth Peck; and I Dream of Trains, which was also illustrated by Loren Long. She has won three Coretta Scott King Awards, one each for her novels Heaven, Toning the Sweep, and The First Part Last. In recognition of her outstanding talent, Angela was named a 2003 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Kent, Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding a little heaven right here on earth!, August 13, 2001

By 

"gritskidz" (Carrollton, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

HEAVEN, the 1999 Coretta Scott King Award book, is a first-person narrative centered on the idea or theme that just as some truths in life may bring a sense of sorrow and loss, they can also turn those painful feelings and emotion into real joy, hope, and acceptance. When main character, Marley, discovers that she's adopted, knowing what to do with that truth becomes the real issue of the story. For 12 years, Marley has lived in Heaven, OH with two doting parents, a quirky but lovable brother, good friends and neighbors that she adores. Now, it seems that her life up to this point has been one big fat lie! Even though she lacks trust in her adoptive family now that she knows the truth, it will be their continued love and support which wins her over and helps her to finally find the answers she so desperately needs to know about her life.

I believe what makes this book so interesting to read is that it presents Marley's family, filled with deception and lies, as paradise. While the most troubled family in the story is "picture perfect" and free of deceit. The plot is idyllic and often dreamy with punches of reality mixed in as everyone's deceptions unravel. Even though this story is not as compelling as Ms. Johnson's 1994 Coretta Scott Award winning book, TONING THE SWEEP, it is still a moving story that handles the topic of adoption with graceful sensitivity.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for teens!, November 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heaven (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) (Hardcover)

I believe this Coretta Scott King Award winning book is a refreshing departure from most books about African Americans. It shows no drug use, nor violence and no one is living in an urban ghetto. Instead it shows a loving nuclear family who has normal ups and downs, and it even shows a very RESPONSIBLE single father! Written in first person, it feels as if you are really experiencing life through the eyes of a 14 year old. And even though I have not been adopted, I can certainly relate to Marley's dismay at the traumatic revelation - when everything you once thought true suddenly changes. My only problem with the book is with the storyline about Marley's girl friend. What was the real reason behind Shoogy's hurting herself and why did she dislike her family so much? Johnson seemed to let the storyline about the girl drop rather then bringing it to some sort of conclusion. But in all, I found "Heaven" to be satisfying and unique. There is almost no references to race in this book, letting the fact that she is Black just to be a given, and making Marley's struggle for self-discovery a universal story that would cross all color lines as an issue that any teenage girl (or boy?) could identify with.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reality Writes!, July 13, 2004

By 

annmmar "ASMB" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven (Mass Market Paperback)

Marley is a fourteen year old girl who lives with her parents in Heaven, Ohio. The book discusses on an average day what she does. She sometimes go to the ma suprette to wire money to her uncle, she spends time with her friends Shoggy and Bobby (this character later comes in Johnson book called first part last). Marley narration through out the book let you realize her family is not a bad one. Her world comes tumbling down when she finds out that the people she has called mom and pops all her life are really her aunt and uncle and the uncle that she has been wiring money too is her real father. The book has many little chapters with different headings that focus on the specific title in each. It shows Marley emotions going up and down on the reality of her world and how she eventually deals with seeing her real dad coming to visit. A great read!