Angel of Hope

I have never been to Africa before but novelist Lurlene McDaniel made me believe I was there in some of the harshest times of diseases going around. Amber Barlow goes half around the world to Africa. She finds out about environments are around her that she doesn't have to live in them. She feels what it's like to change people's lives and to see death right in front of her. Death is that hardest thing to her to overcome; maybe she can't overcome it at all! You will have to read the book, Angel of Hope to find out for yourself. Towards the end of the book, Heather comes down with a life - threatening illness. This makes Amber's trip come to an end faster than it was going to. She comes home to be with her sister and help her through everything. I like they way Amber and Heather come together and have a good relationship at the end. These type things just want to make you keep turning the pages to see what happens!Boyce is a good-looking boy who is in Africa also on a missionary trip and at first acts like a friend to Amber. Months later, things begin to change with his and her feelings both. Boyce is a big help to her while she is there. He tells her things that truly help her in the long run!The reason I liked this book and enjoyed it so much was because of all the relationships that go on between the people in Africa and Amber's family. Amber's mom decides to tag along and go operate on the kids and adults there with disabilities and people that has problems with they way they look. Angel of Hope is a great book for young adult readers. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in books about death, dying, and relationships, as in other words sad books. Notes about Lurlene McDaniel... Lurlene McDaniel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McDaniel started writing novels 25 years ago. Her son was near death from un-diagnosed juvenile diabetes. She researched the disease and that's what inspired her to write stories about illness and death. McDaniel has written over 40 novels. Lurlene's most popular books are Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, and Six Months to Live. The book Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep won the romance writer award for best YA Romance in 1992. Lurlene McDaniel's newest book at this point is the Time Capsule. Lurlene mostly writes about cancer, death, and dying because, young adults are curious about such things and hardly ever talk about it. In Lurlene's books she doesn't use real people, but they act as if they are real in the book with feelings and everything else. Lurlene says, "Always realize that no matter how sad life is, it is always worth living!"

This book is like the best book in the world. After I read it, I kept thinking about it so much. I was reviewing most of the words and you can picture what she trying to say in you mind. It has gotten me to think a lot and I thought that maybe I would like to work with kids like Heather and Amber did. I would also like to fall in love like they did. That would be awesome. I hope that when you read this, you get the same feeling as I did.

I have loved reading Lurlene McDaniel's books for many years and I would have to say this is the BEST of the best! I was so compeltely taken in by this book. I loved the story of Heather trying to adjust back to the USA, I loved the emotional situtaions Amber found herself in and how she would do anything for Heather and I lvoed that the mother and Amber ended up going to Africa....I have always had a place in my heart for the children in Africa and this just made me want to do more....I am planning a missiosn trip there next summmer...as soon as I put down the book I got active. This book is sad...but so full of HOPE! CONGRATS!

As someone who has been reading McDaniel's books for neraly 10 years I must say this is the best offering that I've seen from her. Her words are alive and all arrays and extremes of feeling leap off the pages and into the heart and mind of the reader. I should have grown out of McDaniel's books long ago but it is just this kind of maturity, angst, and innocence lost that keeps me comming back for more. The characters in this book are excellent role models for teenagers as they showcase hope, self-sacrafice, endurance, and a unshakeable faith in God. Something sorely missing in much of the lives of today's youth. This is the sort of book that after you've finished it and wiped away the tears you want to go out and become a better person. Read this book. Read it and remeber the lessons it teaches you. You'll be a greater human being because of it.