Heaven

Marley, a fourteen year-old growing up in Heaven, Ohio, suddenly learns that her mother and father are actually her aunt and uncle and that her father is her Uncle Jack, a man she does not remember but who she has received many letters from throughout the years on his many places of travel. This

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news is devastating to Marley, who struggles to forgive her parent figures for not telling her sooner and who also struggles to understand how this affects her identity.

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, this book reveals how a young woman chooses to identify herself in relation to her family. After learning the news about her real parents, Marley begins to examine and question what constitutes a family and does this by looking at her friends' families. Her best friend Shoogy seems to have the perfect family, but Marley learns that the appearance of perfection does not always mean it is a reality. She learns that Shoogy, who she seems as truly beautiful, cut herself when she was made to appear in pageants when she was younger. She also learns that Shoogy and her family do not seem to understand one another, which also undermines their perfect appearance. Marley also is able to learn the meaning of family with the family that she babysits for, Bobby and his daughter Feather. Although Bobby rarely talks about his family or Feather's mother, he is a committed and adoring young father who offers support as Marley struggles to understand herself and her family. With the help of her friends and support of her own family, Marley seems to find peace with the love that surrounds her.

Marley is a character that young adults can relate to as adolescence is a time when young people are trying to understand who they are and the world around them and Marley does this throughout the entire book. She must deal with the anger she feels for her parents and the betrayal that she feels they committed. Through Marley, Johnson shows that not everything is in black and white and that identity is something that changes and matures, not something that remains the same.

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Fourteen year-old Marley's happy life is shattered when she discovers that her uncle is actually her father. She struggles to accept this revelation, and gradually begins to understand and trust her adoptive parents again.
Marley's present-tense narration really helps the reader sympathize with her

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and feel something of the pain she experiences, like when she is basically in shock immediately after finding out the truth about her parentage.

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Sometimes parents will do their best to protect their children even if it means not being honest with them. The results can be desvastating to everyone when the truth is revealed.

Marley lives in Heaven, Ohio with her mom, dad, and brother Butchy. She gets occasional letters from her dad's twin brother, Jack and her best friend in Shoogy Maple whose family is perfect. Fourteen year-old Marley's world is perfect until one day when she learns a family secret.
Johnson tells the

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story, Heaven, in first person through Marley the main character. The author hooks you from the very beginning of the story because you want to know about a town named Heaven and just why Uncle Jack is writing letters to Marley. It is a letter from Deacon James David Major concerning the burning of the Our First Mission Church in Alabama and how the records in that church were destroyed and how it affects Marley and her family.
Johnson does a wonderful job of bringing her characters to life and giving the reader people that they can relate with. You want to know about the relationship between Marley and Uncle Jack, who has not seen her since her birth. Why do Marley's parent's send Uncle Jack money through Western Union? I believe that this story will appeal to teenage readers between the ages of 12 to 14 and they will appreciate the theme of the story which is that it is the family that loves and surrounds you everyday who let you know you are loved.
Heaven is a Coretta Scott King Award winne

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Marley (named after Bob Marley) has lived in Heaven, OH since she was two years old, and everything has been--heavenly. The only difference between her and the other kids she knows is that she makes weekly trips to Ma's Superette to send money to her Uncle Jack via Western Union. Uncle Jack writes

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letters to her regularly, telling all about his travels. She also has a best friend, Shoogy Maple, who has a strangely perfect family, and she loves to babysit baby Feather while her friend Bobby paints. One day Marley's world shifts suddenly, however, when she learns that she is actually her Uncle Jack's daughter, and that the people she thought were her parents are actually her aunt and uncle. her name isn't even Marley--it's Monna. Marley struggles to come to grips with this new information, even as Uncle Jack decides it's time to come home and meet Marley.

This was a disappointing book. Marley remained a mostly flat character, and her cadre of friends seem like standard characters trotted out according to a formula: the troubled friend from the too-perfect family; the mysterious Uncle who writes loving letters to a niece he's supposedly never met; the lonely, sensitive artist with the darling child he adores. The letter which precipitates Marley's knowledge about her birth seems contrived, and her reaction to it somehow doesn't ring true. Part of the problem may be that the book just moves too quickly. At only 138 (small) pages, events seem to move too quickly to really get to know Marley and understand why this betrayal is so significant for her. Though it makes sense that she would be confused and hurt, and young readers will be able to identify with those feelings, she is never developed enough to completely engage the reader, and in the end the story just seems a bit trite. "Even though some of the stories will hurt my heart and sometimes make me afraid of losing more of what I have; I want her to know that it's been a fine life, for a girl like me, in Heaven."

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Marley learns the truth about her "parents" one summer afternoon. Marely discovers that she is adopted and she feels like the world she has known has been a lie. Can she trust these people any longer? What about Uncle Jack? Who is he really?
Johnson's characters come to life and make the story seem

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real. This story teaches the reader that those who love us sometimes lie to protect us from the truth. Marley discovers that she hasn't lost her parents, but has gained new information that helps her understand who she is.

Awards and Honors: Coretta Scott King

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Summary: Marley thought she knew her family until a secret about her past comes to light.

Evaluation: This story moved rather slowly and took place mostly in Marley's head. The reader sees how Marley deals with learning the secret and learning all about family. It's very well-written, but it does

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move slowly.

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Angela Johnson's concise, poetic narrative gives weight to Marley's search for her identity. When she finds out that the parents she has always known are actually her aunt and uncle, Marley struggles to come to terms with whether her birth parents or the parents that raised her shaped her identity

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more. As Marley matures, she begins to see that it is ok to love and be loved by both her Momma and Daddy and her Uncle Jack (her absentee biological father)- "I love the people who raised me by that river and...I love the man who finally came back to tell me the stories I needed to hear from so long ago." Marley's story is short, poignant, and beautiful.

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Marley enjoys her life in Heaven - she has a great family and a best friend Shoogy. Everything in her life is going good, when she receives some unexpected news that changes her life. It makes her wonder is her family really hers?

Marley finds out she's adopted and her whole life turns upside down. Nothing seems right. But, in the end she finds that love is the most important thing. No drugs, violence or race.

When 12 year old Marley discovers that she is adopted, her perception of who she is and the parents who raised her is turned upside down.

Learning that her uncle is her biological father, she struggles to define truth.

This book is well written and the characters are all very likeable. As a parent of

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an adopted daughter I didn't feel the issues were depicted as in depth as they should/could have been.
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*SPOILER* Marley lives in Heaven, Ohio, with Momma, Pops and Butchy, and gets occasional letters from her Uncle Jack, a nomadic man who travels the country. One day Marley finds out Momma and Pops are actually her aunt and uncle, Uncle Jack is her father, and her real mother died in a car accident.

ack - the library owns the third of this trilogy, and other assorted titles by Johnson, but not this one...

Marley is a 14-year-old girl who lives with her parents and brother in the small town of Heaven, Ohio. Her two good friends are Shoogy Maple, a rebellious teenager in a seemingly perfect family, and Bobby, a young man not a whole lot older than herself, who is raising a daughter on his own.

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Marley's other important person in her life is Uncle Jack, who she's never met, but with whom she's corresponded by mail for many years. He seems to just travel around the country with his dog, Boy, as a semi-vagrant.
But Marley's whole world is shaken to it's core when she learns that Uncle Jack is not her uncle, but her father. And her parents are actually her aunt and uncle. She has a difficult time coming to terms with this new reality.
I loved this short little book. It's got some powerful stuff in in it.

Side note: I did find it odd that it won the Coretta Scott King award. Although Marley and her family are black, there doesn't seem to be anything at all about the black experience in the book. If the characters had all been white, it could have been exactly the same tale. There was mention several times about black churches in around America being burned. This was odd. It didn't play a part in the story in any way. I couldn't figure out why it was mentioned at all.

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