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Overview
The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), is the eldest; then Saffron (Saffy); Indigo, the only boy; and Rose, the youngest. When Saffy discovers quite by accident that she has been adopted, she is deeply upset, though the others assure her that it makes no difference at all. Saffy is the daughter of Eve's twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena.
At Grandad's death he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is "her angel," although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story. Unforgettable characters come alive in often deeply humorous and always absorbing events to be treasured for a long, long time.
Winner of the 2002 Whitbread Children's Book Award
Synopsis
Saffron's two sisters, Cadmium and Rose, and her brother Indigo were all named from a color chart by their mother Eve, a fine-arts painter. When Saffron, known as Saffy, discovers that her name is not on the chart, it soon leads to another discovery. She has been adopted.
Life in the Banana House, as their home is called, is never dull. Caddy, the eldest, is taking driving lessons from an instructor who happens to be a very attractive young man. Indigo dreams up ways, sometimes quite dangerous, to conquer fear. Rose, the youngest, has learned how to get her own way without upsetting the other. As for Saffy, all she remembers from when she was very small is a stone angel in a garden in Italy. With the help of a newfound friend, Saffy sets out on an adventurous and sometimes hilarious search for her angel.
Publishers Weekly
At the start of this story, a girl learns that she is actually the Italian-born daughter of her supposed mother's twin sister, who died in a car crash when she was three. When her grandfather also dies and leaves her the statue of an angel, her search for it leads to more than one discovery. In a boxed review, PW called this "a memorable portrait of a vastly human family." Ages 8-12. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
At the start of this story, a girl learns that she is actually the Italian-born daughter of her supposed mother's twin sister, who died in a car crash when she was three. When her grandfather also dies and leaves her the statue of an angel, her search for it leads to more than one discovery. In a boxed review, PW called this "a memorable portrait of a vastly human family." Ages 8-12. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
Living at the Banana House, the name of the house that Saffron and her siblings live in, is a child's dream. Their artist father is in London during the week and their artist mother is positive that the children know more about raising children than she does so she lets them run the house. Still, it is a house built on love and on family. One day, while reading the color chart that her siblings' names were taken from (sisters Cadmium and Rose and brother Indigo,) she realizes that Saffron is not on the chart and she is told that she was adopted. When her grandfather dies and leaves property and money to her siblings but leaves for Saffy "her angel in the garden," Saffron sets out to find out what happened to her mother and where her angel is. The book is half fairy tale and half dramatic novel. While the story is, at times, unbelievable, the reader becomes caught up in the lyrical style of the author and in the perseverance of Saffron. 2002, Margret K McElderberry Books/Simon and Schuster,— Heather Robertson
From The Critics
Longing suffuses the pages of Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay. Saffron is part of a loving, artistic, scruffy, big-hearted English family, but she can't seem to settle in and feel that she belongs. Her discovery that she was adopted—that she is, in fact, niece and not daughter, to Eve—changed everything for her. The deep, lost feelings eventually find a focus in a scrap from her grandfather's will: "For Saffron. Her angel in the garden." When Sarah, who lives down the street, happens to accidentally send her wheelchair crashing into Saffy, the girl becomes Saffy's first proper friend. And Sarah becomes—if possible—even more obsessed than Saffy, herself, with the angel. As they talk, Saffy remembers that the angel is real and made of stone; that it stood in the garden of the house in Italy where she lived before her mother died in a car crash. The two girls set out on a rollicking adventure, determined to hunt it down. Although nothing about the hunt goes as expected, they do ultimately find the angel. Broken. After all that trouble, Saffy thinks, melancholy again. Still, there is "too much going on at the Banana House for anyone to be sad very often." Part of the delight of reading any McKay book is the wry, understated humor. Another part is getting to know the people in them, in this case, Saffy's idiosyncratic family. They don't exactly seem real—a reader might go a whole lifetime and never meet a Saffy, a Cadmium, an Indigo, a Rose, an Eve, or anyone else from the pages of this book. But McKay's characters are fascinating in the same way that a particularly apt metaphor can feel at the same time surprising and somewhat unlikely, yet amazingly and deeply true. In the end, Saffy's Angelis a story about the warmth to be found right in the middle of the messiness and scruffiness of family life, even in families where one doesn't always feel orderly or cozy or even safe. 2002, Margaret McElderry,— Jane Kurtz