A Gift of Angels: Sequel to the Angel Doll, a Christmas Story

This is Bledsoe's sequel to his 1996 holiday favorite The Angel Doll, continuing the story of young Whitey Black, whose devotion to his four-year-old polio-crippled sister was the subject of the earlier book, narrated by his paper-route partner and buddy. Here Bledsoe relates the circumstances surrounding the birth of The Angel Doll. The grown-up narrator is now a veteran newspaper reporter, reminiscing on his old friend Whitey. Since he never knew Whitey's real name, trying to find him seems impossible. As in real life, the reporter writes The Angel Doll (the outline of the previous book is synopsized so new readers get the gist) hoping to generate enough attention to bring Whitey forth. The reception of that book is recapitulated (an excerpt in Good Housekeeping, etc.), and amid the crush of readings and publicity events, the narrator meets Whitey's daughter, Sandy (named after Whitey's little sister). Sandy provides the missing information about her father's life and gives the narrator a box of Whitey's correspondence, including the revealing letters he wrote while serving in Vietnam. Whitey was a highly decorated lieutenant who died trying to save a little Vietnamese girl from sniper gunfire. The narrator pays his respects to his brave old friend by giving Whitey's young granddaughter, Laurel, a very special Christmas gift. When the story, simple in itself, veers into issues such as publishing and war heroism, much of its elemental power dissipates. While the tale also gets muddled with too many nostalgic details of various restaurants, towns, famous acquaintances and auxiliary characters, Bledsoe's message is undeniably sweet-spirited, and this entre into the feel-good holiday genre should prove popular for all ages. (Nov.)