Probity Jones and Fear Not Ang

When she misses the Christmas pageant because she is sick, a young African American girl is visited by an angel who takes her back to witness the first Christmas

Ill with a fever and forced to stay home and miss her Christmas pageant performance, young Probity witnesses a Christmas miracle of her very own. Folded within the silken robes of the Fear Not Angel, Probity soon hovers high above her Christmas pageant and is also magically transported to the wondrous first Christmas. Wangerin expertly crafts this lengthy story, quickly establishing characterizations and balancing the fairy-tale elements here with a lifelike portrait of an African American family. Ladwig's soft grainy paintings depict Probity's home and her flight with equal realism, and the face of his angel fairly melts with kindness. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4^-7. Probity Jones is upset because she is too sick to take her role in the Christmas pageant. Worse, she became ill when her new jacket was stolen by some tough kids in the neighborhood, and her mother is too poor to buy another one. After Probity has encouraged her little brother, he can do his part without her being on stage, and the family leaves for the pageant; she is alone, miserable that the part of the angel who tells Mary to "fear not" will be played by someone else. Then, to Probity's amazement, a real angel appears at the window, wraps Probity in her soft shawl, and whisks her to the scene of the Nativity pageant, where she can appreciate her brother's performance, and then flies her up to the heavenly host before bringing her back home. Did the angel really come? Probity has the shawl to prove it. The story is loose, and the fantasy is at times overwritten, but the artwork, featuring a joyful African American family and a haunting dark-skinned angel, will stay with readers and listeners. For larger collections and those needing Christmas books with African American characters. Ilene Cooper