It is 1953 and Penny Falucci is an 11 year old girl living with her mother and grandparents. Her father is dead, but his large Italian family is a huge part of her life. Penny feels trapped because she is still being treated like a child - she can't go to the pool or movie theatre because her mother is scared she will catch polio. Penny doesn't know how her father died and no one will tell her. Finally the secrets of her father's death come out in an eventful summer that ends with the unexpected. I really liked Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm because some of the characters reminded me of relatives in my Italian-American family.