A PLACE FOR ANGELS

A child and her aunt learn to let go in this intense novella by Bulla (Singing Sam, 1989, etc.) about death, grief, and angels. Claudine's widower father dies, leaving her only the angel figures that had brought him to the edge of artistic renown. Enter Aunt Lona, embittered by perceived family injustices, who takes Claudine in but tries unsuccessfully to leave the angels behind. Claudine later sets them on fire, an act of liberation as well as defiance. Defeated, Lona produces intercepted letters from family friends who offer Claudine a better home. Children may completely overlook Lona's acute loneliness, seeing only her villainy; the exaggerated postures in Noonan's billowing black-and-white scenes sometimes clash with Bulla's more economical, between-the-lines style. Still, the angels have enough presence to please angel-lovers, and Claudine shows more insight and independence than her aunt. (Fiction. 8-10)