DOWN AT ANGEL'S

Though other kids are put off by Angel's strange-looking eye (it's ``like a milky star'') and call him ``that dumb Bulgarian,'' the narrator and her little sister enjoy watching the old man make furniture, hearing operas on his radio, and eating the chocolate he gives them when they've helped their mama. Like the sisters, whose father died ``in the war'' (WW II), Angel has suffered a loss—because he used to drink too much, his wife has left. Chmielarz draws the affection between the lonely man and his young neighbors with a gentle lyricism that recalls similar relationships in Eve Bunting's picture books. An exchange of Christmas gifts epitomizing the hard times in this Middle- American community makes a warm and satisfying conclusion: Mama helps the girls choose a generous box full of the canned goods they have helped her put by for Angel, and he gives them a beautiful carved table they had hoped to buy from him someday. Kastner's gentle, earth-toned paintings, rendered in broad, light-filled strokes, reflect the narrative's pervasive sense of security. (Picture book. 4-8)