Some books are absolute magic, and this is one of them. The main character, an unnamed angel, is a plucky creature with a bumbling vocabulary that is laugh-out-loud funny as well as a sassy running commentary about the "peoples" who reside in a small village in the Swiss Alps. Kids will giggle at the mischievous side of Angel, who throws pinecones at irritating mortals and smashes figs for fun. Angel can only be seen or sensed by the book's children—first and foremost, by spunky Zola. She is a free-spirited young girl who wears a trio of rainbow-colored dresses at any one time and teams up with the angel to bring the tiny town out of a time-worn gloom with good deeds, namely rescuing a motley crew of orphans with touching and humorous results. Creech's protagonist is hugely likable. Angel has moments of self-doubt and impatience that are appealingly human, while there is a sweet exchange with Zola about the potential of people to already be angel-like in this existence by using their lives for good. Thanks to the author's signature eloquence in detail, readers will wish that they, too, could live in the village among the quirky cast of characters. Creech's offering deserves to be read out loud and more than once to truly enjoy the angel's hilarious malapropisms and outright invented words, and to appreciate the book's tender, comical celebration of the human spirit.—School Library Journal
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