Description: When Maura comes to after a bomb blast outside her school in Northern Ireland, she finds a girl lying beside her on the pavement, a girl who looks almost exactly like Maura -- except that she's naked, and perfect. Maura quickly wraps the stranger in her coat and brings her home. Who is she, and where has she come from? The girl seems to know nothing of the world, not even simple things like how to eat or fall asleep or talk. She doesn't understand pain. Yet she has a magical way with people. The baby stops crying. Quarrels dissolve. Maura's mother smiles again, and their home seems peaceful and full of exciting moments of magic. As it turns out, the stranger is none other than Maura's guardian angel, who needs to learn how to be human. Through helping the angel, observing her, and being helped by her, Maura comes to better understand and appreciate her family, war, wishes, and even being human herself. While Banks never flinches from the terrible difficulties of war and offers no easy answers, the inherent humor, emotion, and drama of an angel's presence in a human family provide just the right leavening to keep young readers enthralled.

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