September 20, 2021
In her debut children’s book, novelist O’Farrell (Hamnet, for adults) adds piquancy to the moment when a blue-tinged angel with enormous feathered wings materializes in a girl’s bedroom by imagining that the angel is just as startled as the girl. Sylvie can see him, and that’s against the rules: “This is my first flight, you see, and I did want it to go well.” He’s a snow angel, he explains—every person who has ever made a snow angel creates a real one who looks after them for the rest of their life. A bold, even audacious child, pale-skinned Sylvie spends the months that follow exploring what her snow angel will—and will not—do for her, and for those she loves. Graceful ink and watercolor spreads by Terrazzini (The Seeing Stick) give pre-Raphaelite romance to the tall angel and to Sylvie’s soulful eyes and honey-colored hair. O’Farrell’s lengthy, storybook-style narration and winning dialogue (“I really had no idea that you would be so talkative,” the angel sighs) similarly give life to this witty exploration of godlike power and what it’s good for. Ages 7–10.
