All We Know of Heaven: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Publisher: HarperTeen
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $9.98
You Save: $7.01 (41%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 79041
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0061345784
EAN: 9780061345784
ASIN: 0061345784
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend's loss and pray for the other's recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died. Based on a true case of mistaken identity, All We Know of Heaven is a universal story that no one can read unmoved: a drama of ordinary people caught up in an unimaginable tragedy and of the healing power of hope and love.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Impossible to put down July 24, 2008
Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley are neighbors, and have been BFFs since they were tiny. They're also nearly identical, with small frames, blonde hair and big almond-shaped green eyes. Both girls take great pride in being cheerleaders (and hate that cheerleaders seem to get no respect). But charismatic Bridget is really the leader of the two, with Maureen happily following along. The two don't keep secrets from each other --- except for a huge one about Danny, Bridget's boyfriend, that Maureen could never tell anyone, regarding an incident between them that was surely a fluke.
On a December drive, everything changes when Bridget and Maureen's car collides with a truck. The girls are hurt so badly that they are unrecognizable. The emergency medical personnel are able to maintain Bridget long enough to get her to the hospital. They don't hold out much hope for poor, broken Maureen, who is in even worse shape than her friend. However, surgeons work on both patients, with Bridget surviving the surgery in a coma after multiple resuscitations. Sadly, Maureen doesn't live.
Meanwhile, the girl in the coma is trying to form thoughts. She can't think clearly. She believes she's dead, but is puzzled. Isn't heaven supposed to be a beautiful, wonderful place? She hurts everywhere, with pain so bad that she has no words to describe the agony. Bridget's family visits her every day in the Pediatric Care Unit. Her boyfriend, Danny, comes regularly, too. As he sits by her bed, Danny remembers the funeral service for Maureen and is overwhelmed with sorrow. He loves Bridget, but he and Maureen shared a special bond of friendship. And of course there was the one evening they shared --- the one they don't discuss with anyone, ever.
Danny also thinks about how Bridget would hate the way she looks, with her face in stitches, her dirty hair pulled into a ponytail, and parts of her scalp covered in bandages because of the surgery on her head. Bridget's cheek has been rebuilt, and she has many broken bones. The doctors warn her parents that brain damage is inevitable; they aren't sure how much long-term disability she will suffer, but at the least they predict she will have to learn again how to walk and talk and feed herself. The experts also caution them that she may very well not recognize her own family members.
One night, as Danny sits watching over Bridget, something amazing happens. She tries to talk. When Danny encourages her, calling her his pet name "Bridge," she says, "Mo-ruh." Danny is so excited, he shouts. And when Bridget's mother comes running, he tells her that Bridget said "Mother." But in actuality, the girl is telling him that she is not Bridget --- she is Maureen! When the truth comes out, it is, of course, wonderful news for many people yet devastating for others...and attracts a huge media circus.
Maureen's story is based on an actual event involving two young women, a terrible accident and a case of mistaken identity. In the hands of brilliant storyteller Jacquelyn Mitchard, it is a riveting tale of despair and joy, which feels remarkably true to life. In particular, the reactions of the girls' mothers and friends seem pitch-perfect. Readers will root for Maureen as she fights to remake her life in the face of almost insurmountable physical, emotional and social hardships.
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
 A take off on a real story June 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I rated this book on the low side as I had already read "Mistaken Identity", a story written by the families of two girls who actually experienced this.
So moving... May 21, 2008
I've read all of J. Mitchard's books (even read and loved Deep End of the Ocean BEFORE Oprah!), and what I love about picking up a new book by her is knowing that it's going to be about characters I truly believe in, 100%. All We Know of Heaven didn't disappoint. Started reading in the car on the way home from the bookstore (I wasn't driving!) and didn't stop until I finished last night. There have been a couple of the situations in real life like the ones in the book, but non-fiction and news programs only give me facts, whereas in fiction I can lose myself in the feelings of each character.
The coma details are both heartbreaking and fascinating, and the girl's friendship rang true throughout.
It's classified as a teen book, but I'm 39 and never felt I was reading a young adult book, it was simply a great read, period. Can't wait for her next.
A moving story for all ages May 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I finished ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN last night and it's been on my mind all day today. What I find intriguing is that it's been packaged as a YA novel when I think it's a wonderful novel for all ages.
Jacquelyn Mitchard has the innate and rare gift of knowing how to tell a story well. With seamless skill, she introduces readers to two young girls who could easily live in your own neighborhood, then she grabs you by the throat and takes you on an up/down roller coaster ride that will leave you flipping the pages well into the night. I can't see how anyone could read this novel and NOT think about the characters and what they went through for days and months to come.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too May 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have read and reviewed many books over the past two years that have impressed me. I have read only a handful, however, that have touched me as deeply as ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN. This is a book that's hard to describe in detail, due mainly to the fact that I don't want to give too much of the story away. Suffice it to say, however, that it's a story that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
Two girls, Bridget and Maureen, who are so similar and yet so different at the same time. They have nearly identical body shapes, have the same colored hair and eyes, and even share many of the same mannerisms and characteristics. They've been best friends for several years, and yet there's a part of Maureen that understands that Bridget considers her to be her friend out of convenience, and for what she can provide for her.
Then there is an accident, a deadly one, and the lives of two girls and their families are forever changed. One girl dies, one girl lives. One family buries their daughter, one rejoices and yet fears over the fact that their daughter, now forever changed, lies unconscious and unknowing in a hospitable bed. Yet through it all, interspersed throughout the pages of the story, are the tangled thoughts of a young woman, who is unable to grasp even the simplest words and put them to the images she sees, yet who understands the concept that she's not the girl everyone seems to think she is.
The wrong daughter buried, the wrong family rejoicing. Fear, regret, heartbreak, happiness, hope -- and with it all, through it all, tinged by it all, lies guilt. Guilt that one girl survived, and one didn't. Guilt that one mother once hoped her daughter might die, to spare them all the pain of a long recovery. Guilt that one family's prayers seemed to be answered, and another's joy was cut short.
Guilt that one girl is not the other, could never be the other, and yet seems to be stepping into the life that girl left behind.
Jacquelyn Mitchard can write. She writes so well, in fact, that the reader is unable to step outside of the story of Maureen and Bridget once they've begun reading it. You can feel the pain, the happiness, the sorrow. You understand, and you grieve, and you rejoice, right along with the characters of ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN. This is a story you won't soon forget -- nor will you want to.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
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