An Angel for Solomon Singer

A lonely New York City resident finds companionship and good cheer at the Westway Cafe where dreams come true.

Grade 3 Up-- Solomon Singer is a middle-aged man who lives in a hotel for men in New York City. One night his solitary wanderings take him into a restaurant where he reads these words on the menu: ``The Westway Cafe -- where all your dreams come true. '' A soft-voiced waiter (metaphorically named Angel) welcomes him and invites him back. Each night Singer returns, ordering food and, silently, ordering his wishes for the things he remembers from an Indiana boyhood. Rylant has sketched a spare portrait, in flawless, graceful prose, of a man weighted down by hopelessness. Readers do not know the details of his circumstances, but they will feel his forlornness acutely. There is a symbolic and ambiguous quality to this book, which, despite its uplifting ending, is heightened by the illustrations. Catalanotto's signature watercolors have never been more affecting. He captures the smudgy nighttime murkiness of urban streets illuminated by artificial lights that float upward to become stars and bleed downward onto wet pavements to become a vision of midwestern wheat fields. This can be read as a familiar allegory in which the mysterious stranger represents the wish giver--the angel. It also works as a straightforward reminder that, in the face of staggering social problems, a smile in chance encounters has power. Not for the average story-hour crowd, but this title will be of great value to libraries in which whole language demands new creative uses for picture books for older readers, writers, and thinkers. --Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Old Solomon lives alone in a dreary hotel on N.Y.C.'s Upper West Side, longing for things he can't have--a balcony, a picture window to see the birds, the freedom to paint his wall purple. Not loving where he lives, he wanders the streets, where he finds the Westway Cafe. He likes the name--it reminds him of his native Indiana; he responds to a friendly waiter's smile (whose name turns out to be Angel); and, pursuing his own dreams, he imagines ordering the things he yearns for along with the tomato soup. In time, this tenuous beginning transforms Solomon's outlook: he begins to enjoy the city lights, feels friendlier, and makes at least one dream come true by secretly adopting a cat. This tender vignette, narrated with eloquent simplicity, has appeal for almost any age; Catalanotto's empathetic watercolors extend (but certainly don't limit) the range to younger children. Using telling details and an evanescent blend of imagination and reality, as he did so effectively for Lyon's Cecil's Story (1991), he poignantly evokes Solomon Singer's loneliness and poverty and the way one warm human contact changes him. A very special union of text and art in a memorable portrait of one lost old man who symbolizes many more. (Fiction/Picture book. 5+) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.