An ocelot. A slave. An angel thief.
With interconnecting stories ebbing and flowing, this jewel of a novel from Newbery Honorโwinning author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt is a striking depiction of family devotion, a harsh cry for freedom, new love, oh, and an ocelot.
Sixteen-year-old Cade Curtis is an angel thief. Abandoned by his mother, he and his dad moved to the apartment above a local antique shop. The only payment the owner Mrs. Walker requests: marble angels, stolen from graveyards, for her to sell for thousands of dollars to collectors. But thereโs one angel that would be the last theyโd ever need to steal; an angel, carved by a slave, with one hand open and one hand closed. If only Cade could find itโฆ
Zorra, a young ocelot, watches the bayou rush past her yearningly. The poacher who captured and caged her has gone away, and Zorra is getting hungrier and thirstier by the day. Trapped, she only has the sounds of the bayou for comfortโbut it tells her help will come soon.
Before Zorra, Achsah, a slave, watched the very same bayou with her two young daughters. After the death of her master, Achsah is free, but sheโll be damned if her daughters arenโt freed with her. All they need to do is find the church with an angel with one hand open and one hand closedโฆ
A soaring, searing novel from Newbery Honorโwinning author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt, Angel Thieves weaves together stories across time, connected by the bayou, an angel, and a universal desire to be free.