The Unfinished Angel »

Winner of the 1995 Newbery Medal, Sharon Creech once had this advice for future Newbery winners: "Take a deep breath. You will have about 30 minutes between the call announcing your book is the winner and the onslaught of complete chaos. You won't know what hit you, but get ready: You're going on the ride of your life."

Peoples are strange!

The things they are doing and saying-sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads? And why so much talking, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why don't they be quiet?

In a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember. Until Zola arrives, a determined American girl who wears three skirts all at once. For neighbors who have been long time enemies, children who have been lost, and villages who have been sleepily living their lives: hold on. Zola and the angel are about to collide. Zola is a girl with a mission. And our angel has been without one til now.

This hilarious and endearing novel by Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech reminds us that magic is found in the most oridinary acts of kindness.

Publishers Weekly

As adept at writing fantasy as she is creating slice-of-life novels, Newbery Medalist Creech (Walk Two Moons) again works her magic, offering an offbeat tale set in a small village in the Swiss Alps. The narrator is an endearingly flawed angel, who has trouble with “peoples’ ” language (“I am supposed to be having all the words in all the languages, but I am not”) as well as uncertainty about his (or her) mission (“Do the other angels know what they are doing? Am I the only confused one?”). When discovered by an energetic and imaginative child named Zola, the angel finally finds something more meaningful to do than “floating and swishing” around the village (“Know and fix? How does Zola know these things?” thinks the angel). Working together, the two create small miracles, instilling compassion in villagers, bringing lonely people together and finding refuge for a group of orphan children hiding in the mountains. Uplifting and full of vibrant characters, this book shows that angels come in all shapes and sizes and can sometimes even be human. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)