Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

Text Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978 1 921758 05 8.
(Ages: 11+) Fantasy. The idea of a guardian angel is given a tweak in this fascinating story from Sally Rippin. Jelly (a nick name for Angelica) and her two cousins, Gino and Pik, find a small angel in the creek nearby her house, a a place they are told not to visit following the drowning of a young boy several years before. The angel is distressed and clutches Jelly in alarm, so they take it to somewhere safe where they can feed it and help it regain its strength. It is Christmas and Gino's family has come to stay with Jelly and her parents and their grandmother who lives in a flat at the back of the house. When her grandmother has a heart scare, the house is disrupted, the parents keeping vigil at the hospital while the children are left, under the eyes of a neighbour, but with more freedom than is normal.
So the story pans out, the children helping the angel, Jelly feeling more and more uncomfortable about why the angel is here, no-one knowing for sure whether Grandma will return from hospital. Getting to the angel in the shed at the local school, closed for the summer, means avoiding the bullies who try and take advantage of them. One boy however, stands out from the crowd and helps Jelly unexpectedly at the end. A story of Jelly's growing up, of taking a stand and finding friendship both with her cousin and the boy who helps her, promising to be a friend when she attends high school the following year, the story has aspects which will surprise the reader, involved in the fascinating story of Jelly and her brush with an angel.
Fran Knight