LoveReading4Kids Says
Our March 2012 Guest Editor Sally Nicholls: "I've never written a fan letter to an author, but I came closest after finishing Saffy's Angel. I read it while I was first trying to be a writer myself, and I decided right there that I wanted to be an writer like Hilary McKay. I love how effortlessly funny her books are, how appealing her characters are, despite their flaws."
The LoveReading comment:
Saffy's Angel really deserves the top honours. This heavenly little book tells the story of Cadmium, Saffron, Indigo and Rose, siblings who are each as colourful as their exotic names suggest. Saffy's Angel is written with a simple, understated elegance that allows the reader access to the kind of family we would all, secretly, love to belong to. Each character is drawn with an enviable artistry coupled with, one suspects, a tongue-in the cheek that adds a sharp realistic air to a modern household with a heart of pure, old-fashioned gold. And it is these fabulous characters who lead the unfurling of the story, easing the reader through the pages with an irresistible wit and warmth that smartly avoids cosiness but nonetheless leaves a soothing rosy glow. Hilary’s real strength lies in her understanding of young people and her ability to evoke them very simply.
Books in The Casson Family Series:
1. Saffy's Angel
2. Indigo's Star
3. Permanent Rose
4. Caddy Ever After
5. Forever Rose
LoveReading4Kids
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Saffy's Angel Synopsis
After Saffron Casson discovers that she's adopted, life is never quite the same again. Her artistic parents and doting siblings adore her, but Saffy wants a piece of her past. So when her grandfather bequests a stone angel to her, Saffy knows she has to find it.
Realising that her childhood in Siena holds the key, she secretly stows away on a car trip to Italy, with her new friend, Sarah. Meanwhile, the rest of her family are engaged in their own wacky projects. Caddy, a hopeless student, is studying for her A Levels and desperately trying to pass her driving test.
Indigo, the sole boy of the Casson family, is determined to rid himself of this fear of heights. And the youngest, Rose, a budding artist, has a knack for baiting her pompous dad, with entertaining results ...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780340989043 |
| Publication date: |
3rd September 2009 |
| Author: |
Hilary McKay |
| Publisher: |
Hachette Children's Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
215 pages |
| Series: |
A Casson Family Story |
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About Hilary McKay
Hilary McKay won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Skylarks' War, the Guardian Fiction Prize for The Exiles, and the Smarties and the Whitbread Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy's Angel respectively. Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children's Books and is a critically acclaimed collection of clever retellings.
You can read her character Rose Casson's blog by clicking here - and Rose's tweets on the right hand side of this page.
Q & A with Hilary McKay
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Watching steam trains with my grandfather. He died before I was two years
old, so that is a very early memory.
If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
Well, who could turn down the gift of flight? Or travel without luggage? Or a
life spent following the sun? Without doubt, I would be a swallow. I realise this
means a lifetime of eating flies, but I think it would be worth it.
What is your dream holiday destination?
I would start at the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and travel South
through Central America, along the coast to Peru, then down through Chile
across to the Falklands and on to Antarctica, which I would circumnavigate.
Then I would travel North to New Zealand where I would spend a long time
warming up and then across to Australia. I would spend quite a long time in
Sydney and go up into the Blue Mountains (I might go sapphire hunting there)
and then to the Great Barrier Reef (of course).
That would be far enough for me.
What is your morning routine?
Alas, I do not have a morning routine.
If you could have one special talent, what would it be?
Singing, undoubtedly. That would make me the happiest. But I have a friend
whose talent is languages and I envy that one very much.
Likes: Millions of things! Books, cats, honey, letters from readers (hint, hint), real music, apples, swimming in cold water, chocolate coated ginger biscuits, trees.
Dislikes: Putting things away, litter, loud TV, hot rooms, being told what to think.
3 words that best descibe me: Untidy, happy, hopeful!
A Secret that not many people know: I am a VERY slow reader!
More About Hilary McKay
