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    The Unfinished Angel
    The Unfinished Angel
    The Unfinished Angel
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    The Unfinished Angel

    By Sharon Creech

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    About this ebook

    Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech crafts a truly endearing story, one that is imbued with happiness, wonder, and an appreciation for all the little things that make life big. With beautiful, fresh new cover art, this is a gem of a book.

    In the winding stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a quiet little village in the Swiss Alps, lives one very unlikely angel—one that is still awaiting her instructions from the angel-training center. What happens to an angel who doesn't know her mission? She floats and swishes from high above, watching the crazy things that "peoples" say and do. But when a zany American girl named Zola arrives in town and invades the Casa Rosa, dogs start arfing, figs start flying through the air, lost orphans wander in, and the village becomes anything but quiet. And as Zola and the angel work together to rescue the orphans, they each begin to realize their purpose and learn that there is magic in the most ordinary acts of kindness.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 22, 2009
    ISBN9780061924262
    Author

    Sharon Creech

    Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler. Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says. www.sharoncreech.com

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    Reviews for The Unfinished Angel

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      This book would be so much fun to read aloud with the accent. Probably the only way some students would understand the text and spellings. A delightful book. But, then I love Sharon Creech.
    • 1/5
      absolutely awful.
    • 5/5
      This book was hilarious about an angel living in an ancient tower in the Swiss Alps. A family moves in and the daughter Zolo can actually see the angel and begins telling the angel what to do . . . and the angel doesn't like peoples telling her what to do. Crazy characters and fun vocabulary make this a great read.
    • 5/5
      In a small town in Italy, an angel watches over the townspeople even though she isn't really sure what her responsibilities are. The people can't see her until a man and his daughter come from America to build an international school, and the daughter Zola not only knows that she's an angel, she speaks with her and expects her to fix problems in the village, like when she discovers a group of homeless children hiding in an abandoned shed. The angel, who clearly isn't sure what she's supposed to do, follows Zola's lead. Told in the mixed-up voice of the angel, this book shows that even those who we think are in charge may not feel quite so confident of their abilities.
    • 3/5
      Tiny moments. I didn't like the dialect. Too Jar-Jar a means to convey this quiet story. Readers may like the short chapters. I wonder though if the narrative strand is too vague for the average young reader. Tender intentions but not one I would recommend.
    • 5/5
      Another good Sharon Creech novel. I intend to select it for use in a future mother/daughter book club. An angel and a girl team up to save a group of orphans and by doing so, the town.
    • 4/5
      A rather aimless and confused angel lives in a tower in Switzerland until Zola arrives. Although the angel is invisible to most people, Zola can see her/him and she has very firm ideas as to what the angel should be doing. Under Zola’s direction, the angel rescues a group of orphans and gradually the sleepy Swiss village starts to wake up and come alive.This gently humorous book is a thoughtful read that would appeal to adults as well as children.
    • 4/5
      I thought that the unfinished angel was really cute. This book shows that not everone knows their purpose. It could be something as simple as helping others and improving life for the better.
    • 4/5
       I think that this is a great book! I really like how the perspective of the book comes from an angel. I think that it is really cool to have the speaker of the book be that of something that is non-human. I think this gives the book somewhat of a twist and makes it an interesting read. I also like how the book has a setting that is not very commonplace or heard of, Casa Rosa, a tiny village in the Swiss Alps. I think that this also makes the book very interesting and different to read. Another thing that I liked about this book was the angel's characteristics. I like how the angel was supposed to know how to protect people and fix things and was also supposed to know many different types of languages but doesn't know how to use them. I think that this links very closely to the central message of the book, which is that sometimes it takes time to figure out our purpose in life or we may not know or see what it is right away, but everyone does indeed have a purpose. I think that by having the angel not understand her purpose throughout the story and feel useless at times gives way for a great mirroring effect for readers of this book. This book could easily appeal to reader's who don't have a sense of self, are not confident in themselves, or simply don't feel as if they have a purpose.
    • 5/5
      There are so few books that have touched me deeply enough that I couldn't imagine my life without having read them: The Alchemist, The Little Prince, The Graveyard Book. And now, I add to that list The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech.

      The story is simple. It goes like this: an angel lives in a tower in a small village in the Swiss Alps. This angel, he isn't sure what his purpose is. "Me, I am an angel. I am supposed to be having all the words in all the languages, but I am not. Many are missing. I am also not having a special assignment. I think I did not get all the training. . . . Do the other angels know what they are doing? Am I the only confused one? Maybe I am unfinished, an unfinished angel."

      This angel watches over the people of this little village, and then one day, an American family comes to live in the house attached to his tower. Zola, a young girl vibrant with life and colors—she wears three different colored skirts and numerous bright ribbons at the same time—meets angel and actually sees him. Thus begins an unlikely friendship between a vivacious girl and a grumpy angel.

      Though the events of the story are ordinary, there is an uncommon grace and elegance to the prose, even with an angel narrator that cannot speak English properly and often fuses words. ("Zola smills, smuggles, what is the word? What is it, that word for happy teeth??") But more than that, the beauty of the story outshines any I have read in a long while.

      Through often misguided efforts, angel watches over his town and his "peoples." By the end of the book, angel realizes he has a purpose, and we recognize the goodness that there is in the world and the hearts of the people who populate it.

      "I am feeling most hopeful watching these peoples. I don't know what to say about this feeling. I don't eat food, but if I did, maybe it is as if I were hungry, so hungry, and I didn't even know it, and then I found a mountain of food and I ate and ate, and then I sat back contentful and there was still more mountain for the next day and the next day. Maybe it is like that. I don't know. Since I don't eat food, it is hard to say."

      After reading this striking story, I am feeling contentful as well.

      In conclusion, this mesmerizing story is one that will become a classic, and I would not be too far off in saying I see this as a strong contender for the Newberry. Every child, every adult should become friends with this unfinished angel and let him help you become more of a finished person.

      P.S. I have serious issues with the book's cover design. Had I not read a review of the book previous to buying it, I would most likely have passed it over.
    • 4/5
      An unusual tale told from the perspective of an innocent (and seemingly young) angel in the stone tower of an ancient villa in the Swiss Alps, award-winning author Creech expresses the joy and sorrow of the experiences of the humans the angel snoops on as they go about their daily business. Told with the simple and sometimes confused language of someone who is an inexperience speaker of English, readers will find the unlikely protagonist hilarious and endearing. A myriad of colorful characters pepper the curious plot as the angel develops an unlikely friendship with young Zola, a new arrival who seems to be the first person to recognize the angel’s existence. An easy read with short chapters, this coming-of-age fantasy tale will lend itself towards a discussion of the importance of ordinary acts of kindness in the lives of those who are misunderstood or who have little available to them in life.
    • 4/5
      "Magic is found in the most ordinary acts of kindness."

      The Unfinished Angel is such a touching, sweet, innocent and funny book. It's such a light and uplifting read that just gives you "happy feels" all throughout the book. It's nice to take a break from all the cheesy, romantic, and thrilling books and just read a book like The Unfinished Angel.

    Book preview

    The Unfinished Angel - Sharon Creech

    PEOPLES

    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 saying, so much talking all the time day and night, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why so much? Why don’t they be quiet?

    WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING

    Me, I am an angel. I am supposed to be having all the words in all the languages, but I am not. Many are missing. I am also not having a special assignment. I think I did not get all the training.

    What is my mission? I think I should have been told. I have been lolling around in the stone tower of Casa Rosa, waiting to find out. I am free to come and go in the mountain villages, free to float along the promenade on the lake, free to swish up through the Alps to mountain huts, free to spend days and nights floating and swishing. This floating and swishing I like.

    It’s true I have my hands full from time to time with Signora Divino and her grandson, Vinny, neither of them the slightest bit divino these days: cranky and bad-tempered, raining soot on everyone else’s head. Signora Divino, she snip-snip gossips and causes trouble between the other peoples, and her grandson, Vinny, with the shaggy hair is causing the mischief and blaming the other boys, and he listens to no one, no one, you hear me? No one. I pinch him sometimes.

    But is that my purpose? Solely to look after the Divinos and keep them from heaping misery on the other people types and giving them a pinch from time to time? I don’t think so.

    Do the other angels know what they are doing? Am I the only confused one? Maybe I am unfinished, an unfinished angel.

    THE INVADERS

    Sometimes I want to throw pinecones at Divino heads, and more heads, too: those peoples—the American man and his daughter—who moved into Casa Rosa. Where they come from, out of the green? Who lets them come here into my casa?

    The American, Mr. Pomodoro, is tall and linky with a rubbery face that moves his cheeks and nose and eyes when he talks and even when he doesn’t talk. He says he is starting a school here, and not just any school, but the best of the best. He tells Signora Divino, his neighbor, We will bring all the children from all over the world and we will live in harmony!

    Is he kidding?

    We will have Turks and Germans, Mr. Pomodoro says, "Iraqis and French, Russians and Chinese, Swiss and Dutch, Koreans and Brazilians, Israelis and Swedes, et cetera!" He squinches his eyes and nose in happy thoughts of all these peoples.

    Signora Divino looks as if she has swallowed a goose. She does not seem to like the thought of all those peoples in this little village on the mountain. Will you also have Americans? she asks.

    Americans? Mr. Pomodoro glances up at my stone tower and moves his lips around as if he is tasting them from the inside and says, Of course.

    Signora Divino lifts one bent finger and aims it at him. There are snakes at Casa Rosa, she says.

    Mr. Pomodoro blinks. Snakes?

    Many snakes.

    Many?

    The Signora’s finger crawls through the air. Many, many black snakes. She smiles.

    Mr. Pomodoro smiles, too. Thank you, he says. Thank you for that information.

    THE DAUGHTER

    Mr. Pomodoro has a daughter. At least, I assume she is his daughter, arriving at the same time, staying in the same house, but she does not resemble him. Maybe this is a good thing. And where is the mother? I see no mother. And there is a picture of a young boy on the mantel. Where is he?

    I do not know about this daughter, what sense to make of her. She is called Zola and is skinny like a twig-tree, with hair chip-chopped in a startling way. Her eyes—gray with large black poppils in the middle—her eyes are big and round like a cow’s. She appears, overall—I don’t know how to say—like maybe a fawn who grew up with humans. Or a chickadee who was raised by crows. I don’t know. You are not understanding what I am saying, are you?

    While Signora Divino asks Mr. Pomodoro many questions, Zola scouts for snakes. Signora Divino wants to know why the Mr. Pomodoro creature came here, to this village. Why? she asks. Why? Why?

    For a new start! he says, with the happy rubber cheeks. Then his shoulders sag. I am weary.

    Of what you are weary? presses nosy Signora Divino.

    Where should I start? I am weary of malls and merchandise and sales and rude drivers and cell phones and blasting music and big cars and fast food and you know those marshmallow candies that look like animals?

    No, I don’t know what you are saying.

    Well, I don’t like those.

    Oh, says Signora Divino. Anything else?

    Zola, who is in the bushes hunting for snakes, seems to reply for Mr. Pomodoro with an air puff that escapes from her feet up through her whole body to her mouth. Foof.

    Signora Divino turns toward the foof and then returns her stare to Mr. Pomodoro, who says, "I am weary of incivility."

    It is a precious-sounding word, and I hear another foof from Zola in the bushes.

    "You know, Mr. Pomodoro continues, bad manners, burping, crude language, that sort of thing."

    Uck! Signora Divino says. Idiots! Cretins!

    MY TOWER

    Maybe my tower—the tower of Casa Rosa—is not the most attractiful or the most specialty tower in Switzerland. It is just a tower, after all, like so many other towers in the Ticino, this southern part of Switzerland. The casa is pink, like so many other casas, but the stone tower that rises three more stories above it is the color of its stone—how you call it? Tan? The color of straw in the winter? Of coffee with very much milk?

    It is a tower that stands tall and upending like a good soldier, for nearly four hundred years, not wobbling or falling down. At the top of the tower is an open balcony with a low wall all around and a tile roofling overhead. There are no windows. You reach out and there is the air, just there. You are high, high above the other houses and the only things as high are a few trees and, down the road, the tall stickly spire of the church. The only thing in this balcony is a gauzy hammock, a light and airful place for me to loll about.

    Beneath the balcony is a tiny square room, exactly the size of the balcony above it. In this room are two trip doors: One leads up to the balcony

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