ANGELA'S WINGS

Sometime during the night, Angela sprouts a pair of pearly white wings. Her folks blame each other, her brother thinks they're cool, her friends and neighbors taunt her. Angela's miffed but, with the wise tutoring of her grandmother, comes to accept her lot and revel in it. Readers may not know what to make of Angela's predicament; in the pictures she demonstrates a certain stoicism unlikely to elicit compassion. These illustrationspolished, bold, and beautifully renderedhave an icy quality despite the focus on bustling city scenes. In Wendell (1989), Nones perfectly blended the fantastic and realistic; the pieces don't quite mesh in this ode to individuality. (Picture book. 4-8)