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A Gift of Angels Down Home Press Readers loved Jerry Bledsoe's The Angel Doll, the 1950s story of 10-year-old Whitey Black, his love for his little sister Sandy, a victim of polio, and his quest to fulfill her Christmas wish for an angel doll. Critics claimed it "a gem of a story," and "a modern Christmas classic." A Gift of Angels takes up the story nearly half a century later. It not only tells how The Angel Doll came about, but how it set the narrator, now the possessor of the doll, on his own quest to find his long-missing friend Whitey so that he can solve a Christmas mystery and return the doll to its rightful place. An endearing story of friendship, love, and giving, A Gift of Angels is sure to find a place in readers' hearts, even if they haven't read The Angel Doll.
Reviews “This is Bledsoe's sequel to his 1996 holiday favorite The Angel Doll, continuing the story of young Whitey Black, whose devotion to his four-year-old polio-crippled sister was the subject of the earlier book, narrated by his paper-route partner and buddy. Here Bledsoe relates the circumstances surrounding the birth of The Angel Doll. The grown-up narrator is now a veteran newspaper reporter, reminiscing on his old friend Whitey. Since he never knew Whitey's real name, trying to find him seems impossible. As in real life, the reporter writes The Angel Doll (the outline of the previous book is synopsized so new readers get the gist) hoping to generate enough attention to bring Whitey forth. The reception of that book is recapitulated (an excerpt in Good Housekeeping, etc.), and amid the crush of readings and publicity events, the narrator meets Whitey's daughter, Sandy (named after Whitey's little sister). Sandy provides the missing information about her father's life and gives the narrator a box of Whitey's correspondence, including the revealing letters he wrote while serving in Vietnam. Whitey was a highly decorated lieutenant who died trying to save a little Vietnamese girl from sniper gunfire. The narrator pays his respects to his brave old friend by giving Whitey's young granddaughter, Laurel, a very special Christmas gift. . . . Bledsoe's message is undeniably sweet-spirited, and this entrée into the feel-good holiday genre should prove popular for all ages.”
Links Visit Jerry Bledsoe’s Web site at http://www.jerrybledsoe.com/. Also by Jerry Bledsoe:
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