Angel's Grace
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Grace has always had wild red hair like no one else in her family and a birthmark on her shoulder that her mother told her was the mark of an angel. When Grace is sent from New York to spend the summer with her grandmother in Trinidad, she looks through the family album and discovers a blurred photograph of a stranger with a birthmark -- her birthmark -- and Grace is full of questions. No one is able to identify the man in the photo, and Grace is left with no choice but to find out who he is and what he might mean to her. What Grace does not know is that her search will lead to a discovery about herself and her family that she never could have imagined.
Tracey Baptiste's first novel is a tender coming-of-age story set on the island of Trinidad. Angel's Grace explores the meaning of identity and truth, and the unbreakable ties of a family bound by love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While the plot of this first novel is highly improbable, the Caribbean setting and cast of colorful characters will attract readers who enjoy books about exotic lands and family secrets. Narrator Grace, 13, would rather be back home in Brooklyn than spending the summer in Trinidad at her grandmother's house. But Grace's lazy summer days become more interesting when she meets Raj, the handsome boy next door, and when she discovers an intriguing photograph in her Aunty Jackie's family album. The picture, taken on the beach, shows Grace's much younger parents with friends. One of the men in the photo bears a birthmark identical to the "angel mark" Grace has above her own heart. The red-headed heroine, who has never felt like she "fit in" with the rest of her family (especially her dad), becomes convinced that the stranger in the photo must be her real father (readers may be puzzled by the dust jacket, which highlights neither Grace's red hair nor her Caribbean heritage). She confides in Raj about her suspicions, and the two come up with a plan to track down the stranger. Plot twists leading to Grace's discovery of the truth and simultaneously paving the way to a neatly resolved conclusion, appear preordained if not strained. Nonetheless, Grace's emotions her resentment of younger sister, Sally, her growing fondness for Raj and her anger over being deceived come across as authentic. Ages 10-up.
