People, whole towns, and even angels can fall into lackadaisical ruts that limit their efforts toward good to almost inconsequential levels. This is exactly what has happened in the village around Casa Rosa in the Swiss Alps. The resident angel defends her/himself by claiming that she/he hasn’t been given all the necessary words in all the languages to do the job properly, which leads to some very comical interior dialogue. But all that changes when Zola moves in. True to the zip and zest of her name, Zola wears three colorful skirts at a time, speaks her mind, and doesn’t mind taking angels to task. “What are you going to do?” she asks the angel when homeless children move into the barn. “What are you going to do,” she asks again, when there is too much noise in the neighborhood to think? When there are no students for the school? When old people are left alone? In Creech’s most metaphorical novel yet, she addresses many of today’s ills and our blindness to them. She speaks to the unfinished angel in all of us. A beautiful and inspiring story. This story is the story of an "angel" of a little city in Switzerland. She is watching over a family named the Divinos, an grandmother watching over her son Vinny. No one can see her, until she meets Zola who can not only see her, but can boss her around. Angel is trying to figure what it means to be an angel. Should she figure out how to get to heaven and make sure she is doing the right job? But she loves her little town so she doesn't make much effort to get away. There are runaway orphan children hiding out in a shud-shad-shed and Angel convinces Zola to let them come stay in the tower they are living in. Zola's family adopts the children and the children are happy and learn to be a little more well behaved.I loved this books because of the way it played with language and language-learning. Angel flits between language words like a little child playing with language. Her words are surprising and fresh and strangely give a clearer meaning than the original.
What do You think about The Unfinished Angel (2009)?
I fall more in love with Sharon Creech with each book I read. Must get my hands on more!
—Zinga
It was a cute book. Very short and sweet and had a nice ending.
—Madeliine
Just beautifully written! Truly! Gorgeous!
—crisinsight
