Answer My Prayer - Hardcover

When lovelorn Lydia Swain prays to the angel she knows is up there, she isn't convinced that he will answer. The angel, Ebol, isn't sure either, being a bit lazy and something of a sleepyhead. But when he's persuaded--by an angelic kick in the rear end--he finds himself involved not only in a love story, but in a political brouhaha the likes of which the land of Korasan has never before seen. And once Lydia and Ebol join forces, nothing will ever be the same--not for Lydia, not for the handsome Aldersan Hale, not for the citizens of Korasan, and not even for Ebol himself.

Gr. 7-10. As he did in Dither Farm (1992), Hite blends the ordinary with the exciting and then adds a dollop of the miraculous. The ordinary is Lydia Swain, who lives with her family in the jeefwood forest, where she spends most of her time daydreaming. On a visit to her in-town cousin for an artisans' celebration, Lydia meets a fortune teller who forecasts a sleeping stranger, a stormy sea, a sighing sovereign, and a kiss under a jeefwood tree. So begins an adventure that finds Lydia, along with her sleepy stranger--an angel named Ebol--sailing through a tempest to persuade the king to save the jeefwood forests from a greedy plot. Then, at last, Lydia is reunited with the young artist who has fallen in love with her, and the kiss, too, becomes reality. Hite has a marvelous gift for language, slightly offbeat and wholly entertaining. It allows him to create an imaginary world, the nation of Korasan, that, like Narnia, takes on a life of its own. The characters are also meticulously drawn, and readers will especially enjoy Ebol, a quirky sleepyhead of an angel who champions Lydia--between naps. The angels and their environs add, literally, an extra dimension to the story, and the celestial goings-on enhance the story's complexity and uniqueness. Important issues of love, faith, art, and ecology are raised here; but central to this mosaic are the characters, who make all the pieces fit. The cover art, seemingly carved on wood, is as distinctive as the rest of the book. Ilene Cooper