Carl Steven V.

Katigbak B - 12
9 - St. Titus ESP 9

Book Report

Title: Johnny Angel

Author: Danielle Steel

Characters: Johnny Peterson

Alice Peterson (Johnny’s mother)
Jim Peterson (Johnny’s father)
Charlotte Peterson (Johnny’s younger sister)
Bobby Peterson (Johnny’s younger brother)
Becky Adams (Johnny’s girlfriend)
Pam Adams (Becky’s mother)

Setting: San Dimas, California

Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Johnny Peterson could light up his room, fill his

mother’s heart with pride, and inspire others around him. He is a star athlete and
the class valedictorian. He was tall and lanky. He had a future filled with
promises but those promises ended up as he stepped into a car on prom night,
shivering in his rented tuxedo, and in an instant, it was all taken away by an
unexpected accident. In the following months, Johnny’s family and his
highschool sweetheart, Becky, struggled to put back together the pieces of their
shattered lives. No one is more devastated than Johnny’s mother, Alice, whose
oldest son owned her heart from the day he was born. But amidst the
heartache, something miraculous happened to the Peterson family, something
that changed the course of each of their lives. When a sudden illness sent Alice
to the hospital, a glorious vision came to her in her dreams. Standing there
before her was Johnny himself. He was gently urging his bewildered mother to
be strong for her splintered family. For Alice, seeing her son is a miracle she can’t
quite believe but is more than willing to embrace. The weeks came and Johnny
appeared in the most unlikely places, visibly only to the two people who
needed him the most : his nine-year-old brother, Bobby, who is locked in a silent
world and his mother, who has always nurtured her family, but who now needs a
guardian angel of her own. Through a season of hope and healing, Johnny
walked by his mother’s side, left miracles in his wake, led his parents, his
girlfriend, his sister and his brother out of their grief. Johnny has returned not just
to help those he loves, but to uncover a purpose even he cannot comprehend,
a purpose that will change them all forever.

Vocabulary:

 vague – not clearly stated or expressed

 suburb – residential community outside a city or town
 corsage – a small bouquet worn by a woman
 eulogy – funeral oration
 grim – stern and unyielding of a sinister
 huddle – to crowd together closely
 autistic – characterized by extreme self absorption
 stern – strict or uncompromising
 advert – to turn or call the attention
 compensate – to recompense; pay
 hoot – to shout in derision
 begrudge – to be reluctant to give or allow
 instinct – natural intuitive power
 suspicion – state of being suspected
 groggy – staggering or dazed
 ecstatic – feeling rapturous delight
 pensive – dreamily thoughtful
 mollify – to soften in feeling or temper
 snuggle – to lie comfortably close
 frazzle – to make or become physically or mentally fatigued

Moral Lesson:

We only have one life to live, and that is our own. And as we live our
life, there are people who come to us, people who are destined to meet us,
people who we encounter in our daily life and most especially, people that are
given to us by our Father in heaven and that is our family. Sometimes, these are
just the “come and go” type of people, but our family, they will never leave us
no matter what happen. We may not know everything, but we may know God’s
plans if we are eager enough to know them. Love your family and express your
love for them even in the simplest way, for you do not know when will they be
gone and you do not know when will they go. The story of Johnny Angel is a
story of loving and letting go, a story filled with miracles and second chances.
Live your life not the way you want, but the way you are supposed to live it.
Treat others not the way they treat you, but the way you are supposed to. We
only have one purpose in life – to be good, and to do good. Sometimes, letting
go of someone doesn’t mean you lost him, sometimes it means you are strong
enough without him because you know to yourself that he is with you, in your
heart. Like Johnny, maybe he left many things undone, things not yet finished,
but he was given the chance to tie up loose ends and to finish things. Things
happen by chances, and we should thank God for it, thank Him for His miracles
and for everything He has given us. Johnny was given the chance to return to
earth to fulfill a mission of his own but you, you are not like him, we are not, so
whether we like it or not, just do good things before it’s too late, for we aren’t
sure of what will happen to us, if we’re now standing before heaven’s gate.