Ring the Bell at Midnight

A winter children’s story for intermediate and advanced readers, Ring the Bell at Midnight by author Joyce S. Wolk is a delightful modern day Christmas tale that awakens a child’s interest in architecture, history, and faith. Set in December during advent, this eloquent and poetically charged tale introduces a bold little girl and an angel trying to earn his wings. At the beginning of this magical story, Arianna Buckley is an eight-year-old who cannot wait to be nine. Begrudgingly, she is shuffling through the not-so-merriest-of-seasons not interested in anything but her upcoming birthday. It is not until she befriends the angel Michel that her holidays are enchanted. What happens next is a wingless flight of fancy. Ari learns that during the Revolutionary War, French soldiers used the old church her grandmother attends and that what the mind conjures, and what the heart knows as truth, is as fascinating as what the past holds as secret.