The Angel with a Mouth-Organ

Last year we had The Magic Saddle from Christobel Mattingley, also a charming Christmas story. The Angel with a Mouth-Organ is a story within a story: mum, decorating the Christmas tree with Peter and Ingrid, tells again the story of her own childhood as a refugee in the second world war. Families are separated, possessions lost, friends and relations become ill, some die; there is pain, suffering, deprivation but occasionally joy and always hope. Eventually the war is over and at Christmas, after a moment of despair, father returns and the family is reunited. With him he brings a scrap of stained glass with the angel of the title in it; it kept him company and now hangs on the family Christmas tree every year. A restrained telling of a powerfully emotional story which slightly older children could respond to strongly.