Angels and Other Strangers: Family Christmas Stories [Paperback]

Katherine Paterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1988 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Aminister, trying to help a boy find his father, winds up in jail on Christmas Eve. A mother copes with the death of her infant. A father searches for his runaway son. A widower takes in an outspoken foster child who tests the limits of his generosity. In unexpected ways that illuminate the true meaning of the Christmas story, these people put aside their loneliness and sorrows and fears and rediscover the joy of life. These inspirational stories are parables for today, voicing hope, celebration, and the mysteries of the human heart.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Katherine Paterson was born in China, where she spent part of her childhood. After her education in China and the American South, she spent four years in Japan, the setting for her first three novels. Ms. Paterson has received numerous awards for her writing, including National Book Awards for The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins, as well as Newbery Medals for Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge to Terabithia. Ms. Paterson lives with her husband in Vermont. They have four grown children.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (September 7, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064402835
• ISBN-13: 978-0064402835
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,561,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished Christmas Gift, March 29, 2000

By 

P. Wright "NY educator" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels and Other Strangers: Family Christmas Stories (Paperback)

Review of Katherine Paterson 1979 Angels and Other Strangers: Family Christmas Stories. New York:Harper Trophy By Pamela Wright, Ph.D. This book contains moving stories that might be a nice accompaniment to Christmas family devotionals. Some stories also might be a good selection for a mother-daughter reading group, provided the daughters are mature. Paterson's characters, though set in seventies America, pull us into their worlds: a confounded minister, a mother who has recently suffered bearing a dead baby, a young girl who isn't sure she likes her new baby brother, and Woodrow Kennington (child theologian), all exist like gameboard characters in various positions in relation to God. All are listening; it turns out, for that voice, that song, that metaphor which will draw them into His light. Unlike much of today's TV fare Paterson's stories do not always have pat resolutions. Instead, they teach those infinitesimally small movements in which God reworks human souls. Many characters are awkward Christians, doing good but not always knowing how to accomplish it without danger or distress. One minister's mother comes to babysit in the place of a young girl who is to play Mary in the annual church play. Her efforts at tending the young baby in the house initially provoke rage in the baby's mother. Yet this rage is smoothed out as are other difficulties of Paterson's characters, even though the total context which challenges their Christianity is not transformed. My favorite story "Tidings of Joy" is a story of a mother who struggles to explain to herself and her son the reason for her baby being born dead. It is her encounter with a creche that brings her some illumination which frees her from her agonized search for blame to a new understanding of how pain, death, and suffering touch us all. Smiles, in addition to these pictures of pain, also abound in "Angels". We warm to tough foster kids and a little girl named Elizabeth who's afraid she's going to be jailed for punching out her new baby brother. Paterson lived in Japan for many years asa missionary. She moves us Eastward to Japan in one story to remind us that the Christmas story can be told with love anywhere in the world, even in the face of persecution. Love rings round all these stories - in one story a father hunts for a lost son with the indefatigability of love to find the lost son is beginning responsible love himself. In another of these stories, a minister abandons the safe world of a mundane Christmas to search for a lost soul in a den of despair, even though his Christmas schedule is scuttled. To find this book you may end up in the juvenile section of your library or bookstore, which is where I found my copy. However this book is not for adolescent Christians but those for who mature enough to know Christmas is an unfinished gift. For these Christians we must not only receive the gift but accept the dilemma and hope that we incur in giving to others as we are given.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book kicks butt!!!, November 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Angels and Other Strangers: Family Christmas Stories (Paperback)

This book was a very funny and distinguished. It had a whole bunch of bad language so I wouldn't share it with your younger children. It is a christmas book so it will have a whole bunch of little stories in it. The titles incluede Maggies gift and a lot of others. I really enjoyed this book, hope you do to!

5.0 out of 5 stars favorite Christmas story collection, January 9, 2011

By 

grandma ruth (ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Angels and Other Strangers: Family Christmas Stories (Paperback)

We've had this book for years and never tire of the stories, they are so good. It is geared for older children and adults and reflects a Christian worldview. Most stories take about 30 minutes to read aloud, and each stands alone. You will have trouble determining your favorite, as do we, but start with the first, Angels and Other Strangers.