Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I read this book last year and I am still incapeable of putting it down. I give this book as gifts to many of my friends. Green shows her innerturmoil as she shifts from Green to Ash. The book really made me reflect on my life and look at the areas in my life that were shadowed. I had to read the book twice to catch all of the references to things around us. I was even capeable of writing a term paper on the book. My teacher was so stunded with the report that she had to read the book. It is absolutely fantastic. I have read many books and this one is still my all time favorite! This is a must read for teenagers and adults.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I think 'Green Angel' is a wonderful book. They say never judge a book by its cover, well you should say that about this book. The cover is a work of art and so is the book. All of the books that I've read by Alice Hoffmen capture you. I think everyone should read this. :)
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, Mystical and Still Relevant
Review: On a day when Green wants to accompany her parents into town to sell their vegetables, she is told that she is needed to stay home and watch the house. Angry that her parents and her sister are going without her, Green refuses to say goodbye and turns her back on them as they leave. Within hours, a fire engulfs the city, and her family is lost. With ashes in the air and embers burning her eyes, Green decides that her life is now meaningless, and she chooses to simply wilt away. She grieves through anger and presents herself to the world with darkness and thorns and self-mutilation. It is the needs of others that slowly bring her out of her darkness and cause her to find relief through benevolence. The world in which this story is set is fantasy-like, leaving the reader appropriately confused and often forced to use his/her own imagination to fill in the pieces. There is a definite feeling of 9/11 in the events that occur, and certainly the overall theme of the book is related to healing and moving on. But the greatness of this novel is in the unique characterization of Green, Diamond, Heather, and the neighbor lady who repeatedly asks Green what her name is. Oddly enough, it is the final answer to this question that becomes the climax of the story. Alice Hoffman's creation is stirring and magical, sad and hopeful. It is 116 pages of metaphor, or 116 pages of whimsy, depending on how deeply the reader is able to see into the human condition.
Rating:
Summary: Green Angel
Review: the book Green Angel was moving and i loved it. thebook is only small but i enjoyed evry minit of it. the book was exsiting and there was a twist on every page. the book never got boring and i recomend it to every one even if you are not the best reader as i myslf is not. it is a easy and good read for almost everyone, very very moving.
Rating:
Summary: Green Angel
Review: This book is about a girl who survives, quite by chance, a disaster (a metaphor for September 11th) that kills her family and many others. She removes traces of who she was, Green, and becomes Ash, "who prefers stones to people". Through experiences shared with animals and humans, she comes to find that her black turns green, no matter how much she resists this change. She accepts again who she is,learns to remember, and writes their story, which is more of her own.
This small book makes a good read and represents coming out of the ashes that were and making the green grow again.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for low level and ESL students!
Review: This book is light on language and dense on imagery and literary technique. The book is an excellent way to discuss symbolism, motivation, metaphor, simile,etc., without getting bogged down in difficult vocabulary.
Angel's transformation to Ash and her sister Aurora's (goddess of moonlight) inability to find her when she does so brought my class to an intersting discussion on the importance of names and the power they have over us.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Amazing
Review: This book tells the story, in a first person point of view, of a teenager named Green. One day, the other members of her family go into the village. They never returned. A fire burned down the village, killing most, if not all, of the residents. Green is now all alone. Green begins to completely change her appearance. She cuts off her hair, because it reminded her too much of her mother. She takes nails and put them through her heavy boots, and wears tights with thorns. She used ink, and gives herself tattoos all over her body. (A self-mutilation of sorts) She is now forced to look at herself, and to find where she really belongs. All on her own. Finding love in exactly the right place. I really enjoyed this book. It's sad, and yet uplifting all at once. Leaving you with a smile, long after you read the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Green Angel
Review: this book-i honestly could not put down- i could relate to the characters in this story because i am the younger sister, the wild and fast one. i am not shy, socialibe, and generous to my sisters. i also felt the pain that Green went through when she lost her family. she lost the will to want to survive. like the darkness she lived in, she became it. she grew in the dark and then realized that she was not ever going to be the same girl. when she encounters the greyhound Ghost and the mute boy Diamond, she sees that they have the same pain as she does.
in her dreams, her sister speaks to her- asking for help, then when Green is turned to Ash, Aurora(her sister) no longer recognizes who she is.
this book is about losing things in life, enduring the pain that always trails behind that lost, and the reinvention of your indentity. remembering is a big part of this story as well as believeing that things will change. change is constant, it is something no one has control over
Rating:
Summary: Better than her other YA novels
Review: This is still a highly visual story that would translate well to the graphic novel medium - but only if it could be illustrated by Charles Vess. On a farm across the river from a city live two sisters different as night and day. Shy retiring Green, older and capable, is left behind to mind the house farm while younger vivacious Aurora gets to travel into the city with the parents to trade their produce. While they are there, something unspeakable and indescribable happens, something that produces smoke and ash and people jumping out of burning buildings. Terror and looting follow. It is many days before Green stops listening for her family's voices. Armoring herself with leather boots and jacket, she changes her name to Ash and briefly lashes out her anger by drinking and smoking until she succumbs to numb grief.
In spite of her desire not to feel anymore, Ash finds solace in a form of self-[destruction]. She decorates her body with homemade tattoos of trailing vines, plants and animals with a pin and black ink. Left to run wild, she develops a keen intuition towards nature, and in her ramblings through the woods her heart begins to take in strays - an elderly neighbor, a dog, and then a boy with a hawk who was injured in the accident, As Ash forges new relationships and works the land, her burdens lighten until one, one day she finds herself singing. Her black tattoos turn green, a symbol not only of rebirth of the barren landscape, but also of the slow healing of her heart and soul.
It is impossible not to interpret this lyrical allegorical novel as a response to September 11th. The swiftly paced story, haunting tone and detailed language almost mask over the fact that the reader comes away with a feeling that Hoffman is not giving her YA novels the attention the audience would demand. A lack of varied vocabulary and the same repetitive (though gorgeous!) imagery hammered home over and over indicates she either has little faith in teen reader's capacity for complex literature, or an editor who is asleep at the switch. In any case, Green Angel is truly the best of Hoffman's YA novels to date; it will leave your throat aching and the taste of apples in your mouth.
Rating:
Summary: Entranced
Review: This little book was wonderful! From the first page, I was taken with it. It has the feel of a parable for those lost in despair. Yes, it was simple. Yes, it left questions. But I think that was the whole point of the book was to encourage a bit of self reflection. It's not a novel and I don't think it was meant to be one. I don't feel that more of a story line was necessary. I would recommend this book to almost any young person, or anyone who just needs a little lift. Beautiful and Moving!
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