Fifteen-year-old Green stayed at home one fateful day while her parents and younger sister went into town to sell their produce. Her anger and angst of being left behind means that she doesn't tell them 'good-bye' but instead goes to sulk. As Green hangs around on her own she notices the city in flames and ash floating through the air making it hard to see or breathe. After awhile she begins to realize that maybe her family isn't coming home. Other young miscreants come and go and the whole world seems to be ripped at the seams. Green changes her name to Ash as the ashes fill her eyes and make it hard to see. Ash tattoos her skin with black ink covering it with vines and bats. This story tells of how Green/Ash picks up the pieces of her life and learns to carry on.

I really enjoyed this book, though short, it was very beautifully written. Alice Hoffman explores a whole world that many of the readers may not be familiar with. She paints a landscape of tragedy and loss. I really enjoyed reading about Green and how she copes with her world falling apart and how she deals with her own guilt about being so sullen when her family left. I recommend that if you are in your library and see this pick it up and read it. This was an excellent read. ( )

This book is rather short but packed full of symbolism and imagery. At times it reads a little over-saturated with figurative language, and bogged down with the symbolism. The story has compelling emotion going for it, and seemed like a nice snack of a book to me. I finished it in little more than an hour. ( )

Green Angel, by Alice Hoffman (of Practical Magic fame). I picked up this book almost by accident. It was in a give-away pile, and since I really like Alice Hoffman's books (well, most of them) I snagged it right away. No hesitation. Alice Hoffman writes on a large spectrum of human faults and strengths. Not all of her books are for all readers, but no matter what her current subject you can be sure that you are reading a book with quality writing, strong plots, and you will learn something in each book, without even realizing that you are learning.

Alice Hoffman's books usually read like a timeless fairytale. Fairytale might not even be the right word, but there is usually some hints of magic in her stories. Green Angel has no mention of year, city or country, it could be any place, at any time, in any country. It is a short young adult book (116 pages)
written in the first person point of view. The main character is a teenager called Green. The book is divided into 5 sections; Heart, Soul, Treasure, Rain and Sister. It is about grief and loss and how one teenager goes through her process of grief and recovery, at the same time surviving with no obvious support. I found it interesting that Ms Hoffman divided the book into 5 sections, and there is a strong theory that there are 5 stages of grief that humans go through during the loss of a loved one, or disaster.

Green has a way with nature, plants and animals. She has a father, mother and younger sister. Green and her family live across the bridge from a large silver and gold city. They grow fruits and vegetables they they sell in the large city. Usually only two family members at a time go, such as Green and her mother. In the city is the only place that Green does not feel awkard or as if people are judging her for her actions, (like hugging linden trees). The book opens with her anger at her family because this market day, she has to stay home while the rest go to the city, and she looks forward to her trips to the city, where she can blend in with the crowds.

Ms Hoffman's writing is almost poetic, and at the same time there is no unnecessry prose. The writing is wonderful, once I started the book I just kept reading until I was done. There is almost no dialogue, as most of Green's time is spent by herself, or with animals and plants.

While she is angrily tending the family's garden a disaster hits the city. Fire burns, the bridge is burnt and embers and ashes fly over to their home. Green comes to realize that she has lost her whole family. She is only left with her sister's dog, who only tolerated her before, and the garden that has been devastated with ashes and embers; the vegetables and fruit has been burned.

Green never really knows what has caused the fire, only that the city burned, she lost her family, many died and her own village was devastated. Since the townspeople assumed she was with her family during the disaster, no one comes to check on her. Green goes through her own stages of grief on her own, with few souls around to help her. She's angry at herself, riddled with guilt at the way she behaved when she last saw her family. She had always been a little jealous of her younger sister's carefree, easygoing ways with everything and everyone. She punishes herself. When she finally starts to do what she has to to survive, she avoids treating her burned eyes (burned the day of the fire, when embers flew into her eyes). She refuses to cry.

As the year progresses, she gets a little stronger emotionally and physically. She slowly makes friends as one by one, different animals and three people come into her life.

This is a wonderful story of grief, anger, guilt, strength, and finally forgiveness. Green's way of punishing herself, and at the same time keeping her pain at bay is totally believable for a teenager. She notes how the townspeople are either helpers,(helping the less fortunate) or opportunists (charging as much as they can for necessaties, profitting off misfortune). These are important observations in real life. Green also learns to let go of each soul that entered her life during the year that follows the disaster, it's hard for her but she lets go, emerging a stronger person herself.

I would definitely recommend this book for middle school age and up, even adults. A 6 *, on my rating system. It makes me want to read more of Alice Hoffman's books, both young adult and adult. ( )

I enjoyed this story. Hoffman’s writing style manages to say a lot with very few words; the book weighs in at a slim 116 words, yet each page conveys vivid pictures. Told in the first person from Green’s perspective, Green Angel examines the grieving process in the mind of a young girl left all on her own. Combining elements of a survival story and a more reflective narrative, this book used a dreamy-yet-vivid style to convey the strangeness of a world in which nothing is what it used to be.

One of the many wonders of fiction is that it allows us to experience an event, and perhaps even learn a lesson from that experience, without the experience itself. You can go ahead and say “time heals all wounds” or “help others to help yourself,” but without the background of experience, even a fictional one, they seem clichéd and trite. I have never experienced a grief like Green’s, but I was nonetheless moved by her journey of grief and recovery.

The book wasn’t perfect. I thought the metaphor of the ashes in the eyes was a little over the top. It made something TOO literal, and then it wasn’t treated literally, which bugged me a little. That said, Green Angel was a well-crafted, fairy-talish book, and I liked it. ( )

This is one of the shortest books I've read in the past few years. I was able to finish it in under two hours.

A young girl (of unknown nationality) goes about her complacent routine until one day a tragedy befalls a nearby city and she loses her entire family. Told by the girl herself, it tells of her hope that her family will return, her denial that they won't return after time passes, her fears at being alone, her grief at losing those dear to her. We learn how she copes with being alone in a time of turmoil; her acceptance that there are others worse off than she; and of how she learns that life goes on regardless of what happens around us.

A compelling, gripping story; packs a lot of punch into a few pages. ( )