Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Starred Review What do a father-son duo who steal cemetery angels, an ocelot, and a young woman fleeing slave hunters with her two little daughters have in common? Well, in this beautifully stranded story, they are all elements in a saga that transcends time, bounded by the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas. Appelt begins in the present day: Paul was shunned by his family when, at 16, he decided to raise his infant son alone; now he and said son, Cade, are hacking at a graveyard angel, planning to bring it to the antique-store owner who took them in. Marble angels, whether providing money to live on or pointing the way toward freedom for those running from slavery, loom large. Other important touchstones throughout are the hope for love and the memory of it, the willingness to take chances to save others, and the relentless uncertainty of swirling water that both receives and gives. The form of the narrative veral pages of story from the viewpoint of one of the dozen or so characters (including the captured cat and the bayou itself) e brilliantly linked. Everyone is there for a reason, richly drawn and important. Questions are asked, but the answers are sometimes tantalizingly out of reach. Only at the conclusion do the puzzle pieces come together, leaving their place in the story clear and readers enriched by the remarkable journey.

Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Appelt personifies Texas' Buffalo Bayou as it witnesses complex backstories from the past and present. Readers meet contemporary sixteen-year-old Cade; his father, who promised he'd leave newborn Cade for adoption but couldn't let him go; and freed slave Achsah, attempting to lead her daughters to freedom through the Underground Railroad in 1845. Readers are entrusted with putting the pieces together to make their own connections before the final denouement.

Kirkus Reviews

A Texas bayou holds memories and secrets, weaving together people and animals through connected histories.Buffalo Bayou takes her place as part of an ensemble cast that spans nearly two centuries. Sixteen-year-old Cade Curtis is a white boy who works alongside his father stealing angel statues from cemeteries for an antiques dealer, and Soleil Broussard is a 16-year-old Creole Christian with a tiny honey bear jar tattooed on her wrist. The two attend school together in present-day Houston, Texas, but the story intertwines their connection with stories of slaves and an ocelot in a narrative that runs away like the rushing of a river. Texas is a gorgeous backdrop for the story, eliciting haunting imagery that spotlights the natural beauty of the state. Each character helps piece together a quilt of experiences that stream from the omnipresent bayou who sees, hears, and protects, and the revelations of their overlapping connections are well-paced throughout. The novel is less successful, however, at underscoring why there are so many voices battling for space in the text. Too-short vignettes that are rather haphazardly forced together provide glimpses into the lives of the characters but make it difficult to follow all of the threads. While an author's note offers historical background explaining the inspiration for the characters, it does not provide sufficient cohesion.Moving imagery is muddied by disjointed character representation in a novel that feels overcrowded. (author's note) (Fiction. 13-15)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The Texas Buffalo Bayou is both an evocative character and setting in this atmospheric novel about an angel thief searching for redemption. Cade doesn-t enjoy helping his father steal stone angels from graveyards, but it helps to ease financial burdens for the kind, elderly antiques dealer who took in Cade and his father when Cade was an infant. Still, stealing doesn-t seem right to Cade, and he wonders what Soleil, his religious new crush, would think if she found out. Cade wants to do -something good- to make up for his sins, and he finds that opportunity in Zorra, an abused ocelot left to die in her cage. The vivid bayou setting serves as the connecting force as Appelt (The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp) intertwines the present-day story of Cade and Zorra with a historic tale involving a former slave and the angel monument that guides her and her daughters to safety. Using short vignettes and multiple viewpoints (including that of the bayou) that can make the novel feel overfilled, the author shows the best and worst sides of humanity and underscores the powerful force of the bayou, which both holds and erases secrets. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)