Heaven

Rating:
Summary: A little boring
Review: Heaven is about mArley, a fourteen year old girl living in a small town, who finds out a life changing secret. She discovers that she is adopted, that her mom is dead and her dad gave hear way when she was just a baby so he could tarvel. Marley has a lot of anger towards her adoptive parents and her real dad once she finds out, and also feels alone and unwanted. This book is about how Marley deals with this change and how she struggles to forgive her dad and adoptive family.
I liked his book because it is a sweet story with a good moral, but it just wasn't very intresting. Anyone that is looking for a book that is intresting and where things happen in it, don't pick this book to read. It was well written with a nice ending but in a lot of parts I got really bored with it. I think people my age (teenagers) would think it drags on a lot and that it is really boring most of the time.

Rating:
Summary: Finding a little heaven right here on earth!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Reality Writes!
Review: 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!