Saffy's Angel

This story is about four Casson children, whose mother, Eve is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colours. Cadmium (Caddy) is the eldest; then Saffron (Saffy); Indigo, the only boy; and Rose, the youngest. Saffy discovers that she is adopted and and is very sad, although the others assure her that it did not make any difference at all. Saffy is actually the daughter of Eve's twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Thus, Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena. When Grandad dies, he left something to each of the children. However, as the will is written around 8-10 years ago, some of the things left behind like the house for Caddy and car for Indigo. He leaves Saffy with a stone angel and Saffy treat it like a treasure and is determined to find the angel as that is the only thing she felt could make her feel not so left out. Indigo dislikes school and Caddy had failed a lot of exams but she aspires to work in a zoo. Caddy also had a driving instructor named Michael. Indigo aspires to be a polar explorer and thus he is curing himself of vertigo by sitting by the windowsill. Sunday afternoons were used to discuss important events where the whole family sits together. Saffy eventually finds her angel with the help of Sarah, her neighbour whose legs are very weak that she has to sit on a wheelchair using the method of stow-away. Although she sits on a wheelchair, she is very energetic. Later in the story, we find out that the discipline mistress of the private school is actually her mother and Sarah understands her parents really well from the phrase,"would probably reply".

My favourite character in this book is Sarah. I feel that Sarah is very smart and she had always done her "homework" when she is planning for something. She has the never give up spirit even though she is physically handicapped. She gives the reader the message that one must not give up even if we have physical disabilities. I would recommend this book to those handicapped people so that they would be motivated and be like Sarah.

This book is written by Hilary Mckay. She is a young English author and acquired a degree in botany and zoology at St. Andrews University. She took up several jobs and one of them is laboratory work as an analyst. She now lives with her family in Derbyshire, England.