Christmas in Heaven

by Carol Lynch Williams

Honey DeLoach lives in Heaven, Florida, a town with a population of six: her parents, her brother, Willie-Bill, Taylor Hiatt and his father, Lyman. Willie-Bill and Honey are always arguing, and goofy Taylor's gone and fallen in love with her. It's lonely living in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, her Pop-pop is the Reverend Gaynor T. McKenna -- a born-again preacher whose revivals bring in crowds of folks all wanting to be saved. Everyone in her family's been saved. All except for Honey. What irony -- to be living in a town named for a place she may never get to.Then Christmas Season moves to town. With her punk sister, Easter, and her moviestar mother, Miriam. Suddenly, the last person she would ever expect to connect with becomes her best friend. But Easter is trouble, and no rules can keep Willie-Bill away from her. Honey tries to get Taylor to tell her what's going on between Easter and her brother, but even love won't make Taylor talk. Then Willie-Bill and Easter sneak off and get into terrible car wreck that kills Easter and critically injures Willie-Bill. In a burst of rage, Miriam condemns the DeLoaches' "fanatical influence" and forbids Christmas to see Honey again. And she and Christmas leave Heaven for good.

But the love of a good friend can last forever, and it is through Christmas that Honey comes to understand Heaven -- Heaven the town and Heaven the last destination.

Genres: Young Adult

171 pages, Hardcover

First published June 19, 2000

About the author

Carol Lynch Williams is the author of more than 30 books for middle grade and young adult readers. Her novels include The Chosen One, Never that Far, Messenger and Never Said. Her most recent book is the novelization of the movie Once I Was a Beehive. Carol has an MFA from Vermont College in Writing for Children and Young Adults and teaches creative writing at BYU. She runs Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, a week-long writing conference for the not-faint-of-heart writer (www.wifyr.com). As well she is a mentor for those who want to write for kids and teens. Her best creative effort, however, are her five daughters.

Reviews

[Kayleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a lot of "kids with problems" books when I was in junior high. Some were decent, some were awful, but most fell into the "mediocre" category--I didn't hate them, but I most certainly didn't like them and often found myself wondering why I had ever picked them up.
This was one of those books. Looking back now, I can't even remember what I ever found remotely intriguing about it, but something in the description caught my attention, I guess. I remember the story fairly well, which is surprising because not much actually happens. The characters are flat, the plot is predictable, and while this is clearly meant to be an emotionally evocative book, I felt nothing stronger than a mild annoyance at some of the characters' stupidity.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Honey is a really relatable character who is just starting to grow up and try to figure things out. I loved all of the different relationships shown in this story. That's what really grounded it for me. Honey and her brother, Honey and Christmas, Honey and her parents, Christmas and her mother, Honey's brother and their parents, etc...all of these had different dynamics and served as foils to each other. For me, it was the differences and similarities in the layers of these relationships that have the story depth. For me, this wasn't an "issues" book, and that was a nice, refreshing change.

[Edgar quintanilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is just mainly a book about a girl whoo lives in a really really small town where theres only two boys and one girl..but then comes along a famous actress w/ her two daughters christmas and violet/christmas beeing the good one and violet beeing the drug/beer addict, after that read the book its a long story.....

[Debbie Barr · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in all I liked this book. The characters felt real, and I just love the improbability of it all. It reminded me of being best friends when I was 12 or 13, though, which was just great.

[Jerrilynn Lilyblade]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10292494

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting middle grades read, a little darker/heavier than I was expecting.

[Anaya B · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really loved this book its amazeing and i do suggest this for pre teens / teenagers

[Lisett Sanchez]

I read a book called Christmas in Heaven.One of my favorite quote/passage was brave is pushing firefighters. Personally I think this book did seem realistic because it had a lot of things happening about the two girls who were best friends..I kind of liked the book the reason is because it has to do a lot with friendship. .The book defenitly changed my perspective because I saw a road and I thought it was about a popular person coming to a town. In the front cover and I thought it was about love but it was about having fun..I did relate to the book because I have a lot of friends and I always hang out with then.The book made me feel kind of happy because I do have friends but not always understand them.I did have things in common with one part of the book because it said that she was sick and went to the doctor.My favorite part of the book was when they collaborated together to do something and to have fun.My least favorite part that they only talk about their health and sick people.I would change things about the book because the book should have fun sounding not sad sounding letters.Heaven is a new neighbor that is very popular and has a lot of money so they build a house at a very lonley place which is Christmas town and one day or the first day the new girl was there she went to a restaurant and ate there so there was the time the narrator met heaven but during the time they were friends forever so everywere they went they would go together.One afternoon the narrator showed heaven her personal tree house and then they took the whole week to do one for heaven and that way they took more time together as a pretty friendship.