tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post116075445513039167..comments2024-03-24T02:15:27.373-05:00Comments on Children's Literature Book Club: Penny From Heaven - by Jennifer L. HolmStephanie Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02860771061981553752noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post-60294454359196187832007-05-07T13:45:00.000-05:002007-05-07T13:45:00.000-05:00I really enjoyed PENNY FROM HEAVEN because I found...I really enjoyed PENNY FROM HEAVEN because I found the Italian characters so true-to-life! Mostly I find books with Italian-Americans either being Mafia-crazy or they do not sound like Italians. I grew up in a similar family; none of these people were stereotypes! Both sets of my grandparents spoke little English, although they understood a good deal of it. I remember having dinner at a restaurant in the late 60s (my last Italian grandparent, Papa, my dad's father, died in 1972) where my dad had to translate everything Papa said to the waitress. My godmother lived with her mother, and a neighbor with her mother, and neither mother spoke English (they both died in the 1960s). All of them made their own macaroni and gravy (we never called it pasta and sauce...that was "MED-I-GONE"..."American"). Everyone had a vegetable garden in the back yard. We made tomato preserves for the gravy from scratch in the fall, went to the church feasts where the older people all still spoke Italian among themselves, and I knew several boys my age (I am now 51) who admired gangsters or who knew the guys who ran "the numbers." We went to a chicken market with live chickens to get our chicken. Again, this is all in the 1960s, so Penny's Italian family life is spot on for 1953. I have some essays about "growing up Italian" on the website http://nostalgiaplace.flyingdreams.org/Lindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00684124498981972463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post-1160766391877327992006-10-13T14:06:00.000-05:002006-10-13T14:06:00.000-05:00You didn't like Anne of Green Gables? Yes, I am s...You didn't like Anne of Green Gables? Yes, I am shocked and I did gasp. I now look forward to reading "Penny from Heaven".I am Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11009938896150312347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post-1160766325161003982006-10-13T14:05:00.000-05:002006-10-13T14:05:00.000-05:00Ok -- How can you not like Anne of Green Gables? ...Ok -- How can you not like Anne of Green Gables? I am now wanting to read this book because of your review. CRAZY!!! I am shocked.I am Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11009938896150312347noreply@blogger.com