This deceptively small volume holds a deeply layered, intricate novel of sparse beauty. The basic premise appears simple: an angel who lives in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps is forced into action by Zola, a determined American girl who has moved into the village with her father. A group of orphaned children need help, and Zola expects the angel to "do something". What happens and how it is relayed to the reader make this book anything but simple. The angel doesn't speak the words very well, so the reader is required to make sense of a lot of mistakes in word choice and pronunciation. Multiple elderly characters suffering from grief, loneliness, and the beginnings of dementia add another layer of complex emotional content. Add in language and cultural differences, and there is a lot for a reader to process in 164 pages. I wouldn't recommend this novel for independent reading unless the student is quite advanced; however, I think it will make a great read aloud, especially since the voice of the angel is so expressively Italian and the characters are so clearly developed. Overall, it is a great book for an adult to read with children.
