The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), is the eldest;...
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Sep 25, 2008
Julie
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Delightful! A touch of "everything old is new again" here. As comforting and nostalgic as warm rice pudding. The narrator's tone and the characters' language made me often feel I was reading the sort of books I read as a child (translation: books at least 25+ years old). And yet, convincingly contemporary, in particular with wry humor and unidealized characters. The author's affection for all her characters, much as she laughs at them, is one of the book's principal charms. I'm in se
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Jan 18, 2009
Frankie
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Jan 25, 2009
Margaret
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Nov 16, 2011
Shelley
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Meet the Cassons—Saffy’s very eccentric, tight-knit family that includes an older sister who can’t drive a lick despite 99 lessons from a cute instructor; a brother who tries to overcome his many fears through unconventional means; a baby sister who is a small force to be reckoned with; a distant dad who spends most of the time working in his London studio; and a ditzy mom who works on her art in a shed at the family’s home outside the city. All of the Casson children—Cadmium, Indigo, and Rose—a
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Aug 21, 2011
Bonnie
rated it: 
While I did enjoy this book, I also found it a bit of a jumble at parts. Until the last two or three chapters, it seems to jump around randomly, and sometimes confusingly because the point of view keeps switching randomly. Certain parts seemed to be thrown in, to never be referenced again. It has more coherence near the end, once the pieces start coming together.
Also, while the Casson family are hopelessly eccentric, and I normally love eccentric characters, I found myself not really More...
Also, while the Casson family are hopelessly eccentric, and I normally love eccentric characters, I found myself not really More...
Aug 16, 2011
Sue
rated it:
What a wonderful book this is. Saffy is part of a delightfully eccentric and disorganised family, who discovers something that shocks her when she is just eight years old. A few years later she discovers that she has been left a stone angel in her grandfather's will; egged on by a new friend, she sets out to discover where it is.
The family's mother is a rather scatty artist with no sense of time; their father, a more serious artist, regularly escapes to London to get away from the cha More...
The family's mother is a rather scatty artist with no sense of time; their father, a more serious artist, regularly escapes to London to get away from the cha More...
Apr 06, 2011
Brandy
rated it:
Review originally poster here.
Could I live in the Casson house? Absolutely not. Could I enjoy an extended stay? Absolutely not. Would I enjoy an afternoon visit? Maybe. Visiting them through the pages of their story is my ideal. That way I am not literally experiencing the mess or chaos.
Saffy and the search for her angel are certainly the core of the book but the heart of the story is all the Casson children. Saffy is distant and temperamental but obviously loves her More...
Could I live in the Casson house? Absolutely not. Could I enjoy an extended stay? Absolutely not. Would I enjoy an afternoon visit? Maybe. Visiting them through the pages of their story is my ideal. That way I am not literally experiencing the mess or chaos.
Saffy and the search for her angel are certainly the core of the book but the heart of the story is all the Casson children. Saffy is distant and temperamental but obviously loves her More...
Jan 10, 2010
Mari - loves to read
rated it:
Saffy's Angel is the first book in a series of five books about the Casson family. Our main character is 12 year old Saffron, or Saffy as she's called on a daily basis. We also meet Saffy's family. her mother and father and her three siblings. Saffy's mother, Eve, spends most of her days in the shed, painting, and the father, Bill, spends his week in his studio in London. The four Casson children mostly cares for themselves, being a painter doesn't leave much time to raise children(it's not that
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Sep 19, 2011
Natasha
rated it:
My copy of Saffy's Angel has been read through so many times that by now, the spine has become floppy and the corners are well-worn and curling upward. It's difficult to say why exactly I love this book. It could be the charming Casson family and their outrageous friends who seem both realistic and yet too good to be true. It might be Mckay's simplistic writing style which is neither too formal or too "easy".
But mostly, what I think does it for me is Mckay's vivid imagery. More...
But mostly, what I think does it for me is Mckay's vivid imagery. More...
Jul 31, 2011
The Casson children - Cadmium, Saffron, Indigo, and Rose - are each named after a color, thanks to their artist parents. But one day Saffron is looking at the color wheel in their kitchen, and can't find her name. After this first indication that she may be different from her siblings (whose names all appear on the color wheel), Saffron learns that she was actually adopted after her mother died in a car crash. Still, they all share the same grandfather, since Saffron's mother and Eve Casson w
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Nov 02, 2010
Taralen
rated it: 
Oh man I'm going to get a lot of people disagreeing with me on this but this is by far one of the most daunting books I've ever read.
I was once into it when I was much younger but I was never compelled to finish until I became older.
This story had undeniable potential. The concept was well thought-out but the execution was lackluster.
Let's start with Saffy, the main character.
Oh mon dieu, is she an annoying character. Bratty, whiny, and just completely infuriating. The onl More...
I was once into it when I was much younger but I was never compelled to finish until I became older.
This story had undeniable potential. The concept was well thought-out but the execution was lackluster.
Let's start with Saffy, the main character.
Oh mon dieu, is she an annoying character. Bratty, whiny, and just completely infuriating. The onl More...
Jan 16, 2009
Catherine
rated it:
I bought this for my 11-year-old niece for Christmas and liked it so much I had to get a copy for myself. It's a quirky drama about one of those big messy bohemian families...the mother is an artist who works in a shed in the back of the house, and doesn't take much mind what her crazy pack of kids are doing as long as no one is bleeding. One of the daughters, Saffron, discovers she is adopted--that she is actually the daughter of her mother's long-dead twin sister--and this sets the action in m
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Oct 04, 2011
Saffron (Saffy) Casson is part of a unique artistic family; there is her older sister Caddy (short for Cadmium), her older brother Indigo, and her younger sister Rose. One day, after eight-year-old Saffy searches and searches for her name on the color chart like her brother and sisters, Saffy learns the truth about how she came to live in the Banana House in England. Fast forward a few years and meet the now older tween Saffy who is struggling to fit in with her adoptive family and fighting th
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Jul 07, 2011
Merrie
rated it:
I'm really amazed that there's something out there that captures the spirit of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle plus all those interlaced family novels I read as a kid (though I'm blanking on any titles, but I guess somewhere between All of a Kind Family and Little Women), and doesn't sacrifice the modern world. There are mobile phones! It's not trapped in some ridiculous past masquerading as the present--it is thoroughly the present. But it has a pleasant sensibility of another time.
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Sep 26, 2009
Linda
rated it:
This book is about a zany English family. The parents are artists and they named their children after colors on a paint chart! There's Cadmium (Caddy), Saffron (Saffy), Indigo (the only boy), and Rose. Saffy is very upset when she can't find her name on the color chart and then discovers that she was adopted by her aunt and uncle when her own parents died in Siena, Italy. Grandfather brought Saffy to her only living family in England but then he had a car crash and has remained unable to speak f
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Jul 09, 2011
I keep discovering books I read long, long ago when I was in Mother-Daughter Bookgroup with a handful of my friends, and this is another one I stumbled upon accidentally! I was in the car with my family today and we were laughing about the first time I drove a car, when I ran over a curb and apologized saying, "I'm sorry, I can't turn very well." (That made them all feel safer!) And all of a sudden, I got a flash from this book, when Caddy was explaining that she could drive them to fi
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Nov 04, 2009
Leanna
rated it:
hi people i am reading this book,still. But so far i really like it. This book is like an mystery/adventure. It is a really good book and i think you should read it.i recommend this book to people 10 and up that likes to read. I know i really dont like to read but then i read the first page of this and i just could'nt stop.
To sum up what this book is. It is about a mom who named her kids after a color chart. Saffron found out that her name was not in the color chart.So she got s More...
To sum up what this book is. It is about a mom who named her kids after a color chart. Saffron found out that her name was not in the color chart.So she got s More...
Jan 04, 2012
Keri ケリ
rated it:
This was an elegant and well written story. I didn't feel lost because of the lower reading level, in fact, it just made the story more realistic and sad! A girl accidentally discovers that she is adopted and feels left out of the family she's lived with for so long. Then her Grandad dies, and the last word he ever said was "Saffron". Her name. In his will, he left her cousins a house, a car, and money, all of which "didn't exist" as the father put it. But pinned to the will
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Feb 19, 2009
Debbie
rated it:
What a wonderful book! A seaful of thanks to those of you who read the book and put it on Goodreads, because I wouldn't have found it otherwise.
I want to be part of the Casson family and live in The Banana House, with Caddy, who's so loving and has to take 100 driving lessons because sometimes she's looking at her lipstick in the mirror, not the road, and Saffron, who learns to make friends and go on adventures, and Indigo, who works hard to conquer his fear of heights by sitting on hi More...
I want to be part of the Casson family and live in The Banana House, with Caddy, who's so loving and has to take 100 driving lessons because sometimes she's looking at her lipstick in the mirror, not the road, and Saffron, who learns to make friends and go on adventures, and Indigo, who works hard to conquer his fear of heights by sitting on hi More...
Nov 20, 2011
Alicia
rated it:
Centers around a comical family where all the children are named after colors and their personalities are just as vibrant as their names. The trouble begins when Saffy discovers that she is adopted and is in fact the niece of the couple that she thought to be her parents. When her grandfather dies, he states in the will that he has left Saffy her angel though no one seems to be worried about it. Saffy decides that she must go to the place where she grew up-—Italy-—and get her angel back. Hijinks
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Apr 15, 2010
Emily
rated it:
This is absolutely my favorite book in the world. It's definitely not for everyone; I think it's for a more feminine crowd. It's about this whimsically artistic family called the Cassons. All of the children are named after colors (Cadmium, Saffron, Indigo, and Rose), and the story is about growing up, self-identity, and the importance of family. The writing is lighthearted and an overall extremely enjoyable read. I would recommend the next two books in the series, (Indigo's Star and Perman
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Jul 13, 2009
Carolynne
rated it:
The quirky Cassons are a family in a class with the Walkers, the Fossils, possibly the Bagthorpes. Saffy discovers that not only is her color (Saffron) on the color chart, she is an adopted cousin. Her beloved grandfather wills her the angel she does not quite remember from the garden of her first home--and an intrepid friend, Sarah, arranges for Saffy to accompany Sarah's family to Siena, Italy, to try to find it. This is a delightful book, funny and touching, which solves the problem of how
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Jan 24, 2009
Robin
rated it:
I borrowed this book from the library ages ago; it was so good that I ended up borrowing it again when I missed reading it. In the end I went and bought it (finally).
So what’s good about this book anyway? It was really hilarious. Really. I had to control myself from laughing out loud during the bus ride home from the library, otherwise people would think I’m weird (weirder I mean). The Cassons were a most interesting and unusual family you’ll ever meet. The children are all named aft More...
So what’s good about this book anyway? It was really hilarious. Really. I had to control myself from laughing out loud during the bus ride home from the library, otherwise people would think I’m weird (weirder I mean). The Cassons were a most interesting and unusual family you’ll ever meet. The children are all named aft More...
Dec 16, 2009
Patti
rated it:
What a clever, whimsical and amusing story. The characters in this story are so memorable that I just wanted more, more, more. Thank goodness for sequels!
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Jan 24, 2011
Angela
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"Saffy's Angel" by Hilary McKay is an interesting book mainly about a young girl named Saffy. Saffy lived in a foster home with three other kids. She soon finds out that she is adopted. After finding out she gets depressed and wants to know where her mother is. Her mother was Eve's, the foster home mom's, twins sister and passed away in a car accident in Siena, Italy. When the kids grandfather was passing away he left each kid something to cherish. What he left Saffy was her Ange
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Feb 22, 2010
Rachel
rated it:
Enjoyed my evenings with this book. Fun voice. Delightful,charming child characters immersed in the kind of loyal, loving, sibling relationships that any good parent would be proud of, but seemingly caused by that exact deprivation. Completely disfunctional parents, the mother of whom I felt sorry for and the self absorbed,clueless father, whom annoyed me to distraction. A quick read, not something that leaves you with any profound, lingering thoughts but with a smile just the same. I was eng
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Nov 30, 2008
Talia
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At a young age, Saffron Casson learns that she is adopted, which changes her relationship with her family. When her beloved grandfather dies, he wills to Saffron a MIA stone angel. To prove her worth within the family, Saffron feels she must find this angel, so she sets off on a journey with her new wheelchair-bound friend where she learns much more than she expected to about her past and about her present.
This was a sweet little book with easy, flowing prose. I listened to this on d More...
This was a sweet little book with easy, flowing prose. I listened to this on d More...
Jan 01, 2009
Kris
rated it:
Recommended for gr. 5-9. A charming book about an unconventional family. Saffy, the second of four children, finds out that she is adopted and begins to feel like she doesn't belong. She makes an unlikely friend and with the help of her loving family, discovers a piece of her past. The beginning of a series about the Casson children: Caddy (for Cadmium); Saffy (for Saffron); Indigo (the only boy); and Rose (for Permanent Rose). Escept Saffron, they are all colors on a paint chart in the hom
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Feb 16, 2009
Hilarious British humor about an eccentric family with four children all named after paint colors by their artsy parents. A touching ending as one child, Saffron, who's been adopted into the family, learns how she really does belong there. I loved the book, in spite of feeling that maybe they were all just a little too adorably quirky. My favorite part was when the father of Saffy's friend Sarah, a quintessentially British engineer who drives the girls to Italy on their quest for Saffy's roots,
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Aug 29, 2010
Tori
rated it:
This book was an absolute delight. The characters were so perfectly charming and whimsical without it being over the top. I died laughing when they went to Wales and Rose said "it's to the left, you can make left turns all the way there!" Indigo's self remedies for fears, Rose and Caddy's art projects, and Saffy's loneliness were all so palpable. And Caddy's driving lessons were brilliant.
It reminded me, vaguely, of the Wheetzie Bat books, if instead of being kind of druggy a More...
It reminded me, vaguely, of the Wheetzie Bat books, if instead of being kind of druggy a More...
