Black Angels Book

During the summer of 1961, 11-year-old Celline Brower Jenkins discovers the existence of angels. "I believe in angels because I've seen them... three naked black girls with creamy white wings, throwing stones on my hopscotch board.... The angels come every day now since the trouble started." The "trouble" is that Celli's beloved housekeeper, Sophie, is stirring up the black community of Mystic, Georgia, with talk of the civil rights movement. Celli is frightened for Sophie, and knows the folks on her side of town--"the white side"--won't tolerate her activism much longer. But when Celli begins to see the small black angels around her home, she feels strangely comforted: "They never speak to me, but somehow their presence fills me with hope." Then a stranger with a secret about Celli's past comes to town the same week as the Freedom Riders, and Celli discovers her fate is tied to Sophie's in a way she never dreamed possible. Now Celli must find the courage, in a dangerous time and place, to stand up for what she knows is right. Rita Murphy's second novel for young adults puts a fresh face on a familiar story. By inserting a trio of unconventional angels into the center of an ugly period of American history, Murphy gives her historical fiction a touch of fairy tale, while not shying away from the harsh reality of 1960s racism. A worthy companion novel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry or The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. (Ages 10 to 13) --Jennifer HubertRead More