ANGEL THIEVES
by
KATHI APPELT
Young Adult / Magical Realism / Historical / Contemporary
Publisher: Atheneum / Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publisher: Atheneum / Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Date of Publication: March 12, 2019
Number of Pages: 336
Scroll down for the giveaway!
Scroll down for the giveaway!
An ocelot. A slave. An angel thief.
Multiple perspectives spanning across time are united through themes of freedom, hope, and faith in a most unusual and epic novel from Newbery Honor–winning author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt.
Sixteen-year-old Cade Curtis is an angel thief. After his mother’s family rejected him for being born out of wedlock, he and his dad moved to the apartment above a local antique shop. The only payment the owner Mrs. Walker requests: marble angels, stolen from graveyards, for her to sell for thousands of dollars to collectors. But there’s one angel that would be the last they’d ever need to steal; an angel, carved by a slave, with one hand open and one hand closed. If only Cade could find it…
Zorra, a young ocelot, watches the bayou rush past her yearningly. The poacher who captured and caged her has long since lost her, and Zorra is getting hungrier and thirstier by the day. Trapped, she only has the sounds of the bayou for comfort—but it tells her help will come soon.
Before Zorra, Achsah, a slave, watched the very same bayou with her two young daughters. After the death of her master, Achsah is free, but she’ll be damned if her daughters aren’t freed with her. All they need to do is find the church with an angel with one hand open and one hand closed…
In a masterful feat, National Book Award Honoree Kathi Appelt weaves together stories across time, connected by the bayou, an angel, and the universal desire to be free.
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BRAZOS BOOKSTORE ◆ BLUE WILLOW BOOKSHOP ◆ BOOK PEOPLE
AMAZON ◆ BARNES AND NOBLE ◆ INDIEBOUND
BRAZOS BOOKSTORE ◆ BLUE WILLOW BOOKSHOP ◆ BOOK PEOPLE
AMAZON ◆ BARNES AND NOBLE ◆ INDIEBOUND
PRAISE FOR ANGEL THIEVES:
Spiritual, succinct, and emotionally gripping.
-- School Library Journal
A heartfelt love letter to Houston that acknowledges the bad parts of its history while uplifting the good. -- BCBB
Shows the best and worst sides of humanity and underscores the powerful force of the bayou, which both holds and erases secrets.
A heartfelt love letter to Houston that acknowledges the bad parts of its history while uplifting the good. -- BCBB
Shows the best and worst sides of humanity and underscores the powerful force of the bayou, which both holds and erases secrets.
-- Publishers Weekly
Narrative strands are like tributaries that begin as separate entities but eventually merge into a single thematic connection: that love, whether lost or found, is always powerful. -- Horn Book
Richly drawn and important. -- Booklist, starred review
Narrative strands are like tributaries that begin as separate entities but eventually merge into a single thematic connection: that love, whether lost or found, is always powerful. -- Horn Book
Richly drawn and important. -- Booklist, starred review
✪✪✪✪✪
HALL WAYS REVIEW: Print and
Audio Book Review. Before readers ever read the first
page of Angel Thieves, they will know it’s unique. There’s the jacket illustration,
there’s the amazing hidden gem beneath the jacket, and of course, just the book’s
description sets it apart from what readers expect in books written for the
young adult audience. Don’t be fooled by all the white space. Read a few pages,
and it’s clear that Kathi Appelt trusts her young readers to think and process
and absorb higher level concepts. That white space has purpose.
The stories in Angel
Thieves are told through very short chapters that give impactful snippets
of story, characterization, and deeper meaning. Each chapter is powerful and so
descriptive that more words aren’t needed. Reading Kathi Appelt’s lyrical prose
is almost like reading poetry. Every. Word. Counts. Each sentence is a morsel
to be slowly ingested, not devoured.
“Below him, the bayou slides
toward the sea. The ancient haints rise from the water’s silver surface, linger
for a moment, then disappear into the morning air.”
Houston’s Buffalo Bayou guides
readers and characters through the passage of time and along its ever-changing
channels forged by weather and man-made events. The bayou is both a physical
and a mystical presence. It holds secrets and ghosts and memories, and it’s always
watching and calling out – and even saving those who will pause and hear its
voice.
In the same way that the waters
of the bayou flow in unexpected, inconsistent ways, so do the lives of the
other characters. There is serenity and volatility, clarity and murkiness. But
both waters and souls are ultimately flowing one direction: towards freedom.
Appelt doesn’t shy away from
bringing to light the characters’ barriers to freedom. For example, her
thorough research (check out the bibliography at the end) reveals to readers the
unsettling, shameful history of slavery in Texas. The story lines will make
readers squirm at times, and that’s a good thing. We need to be reminded of
where greed and lust for money and power and control can lead.
Angel Thieves covers
a wide range of really heavy topics and draws some uncomfortable parallels showing
how history repeats itself. Appelt doesn’t sugar-coat ugly, and she makes some
clear statements about the state of our world, but it is all incorporated
organically and feels natural for the situations and characters. (Including the
scattered F-bombs dropped by sixteen-year-old Cade. Like it or not, teenagers swear in
real-life.)
ABOUT THE NARRATION: Perfection.
Laurel Kathleen, the narrator of the audio book version of Angel Thieves, treats
listeners to an outstanding performance. Pacing is precisely what it should be
(I listened at regular speed, which is a rarity), and she seamlessly shifts
between characters and voices. She’s a natural storyteller, and especially when
the bayou is calling, listeners will be mesmerized.
I highly recommend Angel
Thieves, and in a perfect world, read it AND listen to it for two entirely
different but fully satisfying storytelling experiences. You won’t have loose
ends neatly tied up, you won’t have clear answers, but you’ll have that ocean full of possibilities to think about, and that’s a rich gift.
Thank you to Lone Star Book
Blog Tours for the opportunity to help share this book with the world and the publisher
and author for providing me a gorgeous, autographed print copy (and photo op) at
the Texas Library Association Annual Conference to do it. In exchange, I share
my honest opinion – the only kind I give.
 |
| Even with this reading setting, I was transported to the bayou. |
 |
| Fangirling and getting my autographed copy from Kathi. |
She has two grown children and lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband and their six cats. She serves as a faculty member at Vermont College of Fine Arts in their MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.
-------------------------------------
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
THREE SIGNED COPIES OF ANGEL THIEVES
SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 4, 2019
(U.S. Only)
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