Johnson, Angela. 1998. Heaven. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 0-689-82229-4.
Heaven is the hometown of our young heroine, Marley. She is fourteen the summer she discovers that she is adopted. Her Uncle Jack is really her father. Her biological mother is dead. The parents she has known and loved as her parents are really her aunt and uncle. With all of these revelations, Marley experiences an identity crisis. She questions who she is. She questions just how much her life will change. Who are her realparents? Can she accept Jack as her father? What kind of relationship can they have? Can she forgive her parents for keeping this all a secret?
The book is well written. The novel is light hearted in many aspects. Marley has a wild sidekick of a best friend, Shoogy. Some of the humorous aspects of the novel is her vivid description of family life. While the book does contain some humor, it does do justice to the seriousness of the subject. The characters are likable. The plot is pieced together well. Overall, this book is a good read.
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