Customer Reviews

Falling In

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Isabelle Bean never quite fit in at school or at home or anywhere really. So she is not a bit surprised to find another world on the other side of the nurse's closet door at school and she eagerly steps in. The children Isabelle meets in the other world presume that she is a witch and want nothing to do with her. After convincing the children that red, pointy boots do not a witch make, Isabelle is instructed to retreat to the children's camp in the woods so that the witch won't find her and eat her. But Isabelle doesn't always do what is sensible or even what she is safest. She decides that it would be much more interesting to meet a witch in this new world and promptly heads off in that direction. Along the way, she befriends Hen, a clever young girl about her own age, and Grete, a wise, old herb woman who is both more and less than she seems...

This is a charming little book intended for readers ages 8 - 12. I think that it is a good, gentle introduction to fantasy books if your child is interested in reading that genre. The story is fairly simple and easy to follow, but while the "mystery" is really no surprise for older readers, younger readers will delight in trying to figure out who Isabelle really is and if Grete is really a witch. The type is fairly large and the pages a bit smaller than usual so young readers will make rapid progress and should finish the book pretty quickly.

The writing style was my favorite part of the book. It is written in a confidential, story-telling mode that experienced actors and performers use to engage their audience. However, I will say that one of the things I both enjoyed and did not like about the writing style were the random asides inserted by the author. You will be reading along the story and then all of a sudden be jolted out for an explanation of what a changeling is or to discuss the holes in modern education. These little interruptions are entertaining and may even be useful for those less familiar with fantasy books, but I did not think that they were placed very well sometimes as I thought they disrupted the pace of the story. The characterization and descriptions were really well done, however. I liked Isabelle right away and thought it was wonderful that this book is based around a quirky, offbeat young girl who knows that she is different, but is okay with it. Her thoughts and rationales for doing things are really hilarious! Hen and Grete are also interesting to get to know and help you realize that not everyone is who or what they seem and that sometimes stories have a way of taking on a life of their own.

I recommend this book for young readers, but I especially recommend it to those parents or teachers who are looking for a fun book to read out loud. There is a lot of personality in this book and many opportunities to unleash your inner performer as you relay these words to your audience. I would love to hear this in audiobook format or to have the chance to read it to some young children as I think that the book is written in a style that is like an old-fashioned bard performing a story. This is a fun, cute read that young girls will particularly enjoy, but young boys should find entertaining as well.

The narrarator of Falling In bemoans the public school systems for not educating the imaginations of children - here is a big step to fixing that problem! I am a big fan of this author, so I come into this with a bit of a bias, in that I was very excited to hear she had turned her attention to the fantasy realm. Not since Alice fell in that rabbit hole has there been such a charming story of a discovery of an alternative world. Our main character, Isabelle Bean is a bit different, with just "a silver strand of otherworldliness barely visible along her spine" that sets her apart from her fellow sixth graders. When she falls through a door in the nurses office and winds up in another land, she gamely sets off in search of a witch that has been terrorizing the population's children. Why would she set off after the witch? Because witches aren't dull, of course and Isabelle is surrounded by dull all the time.

There are many lighthearted moments in this story, but not all is light and dreamy. Isabelle finds herself facing illness and death. So, be prepared for some adventure! I loved this story and feel very heartened that people are still writing such imaginative tales that pay tribute to the classic fairy tales of old. This is perfect for fourth through sixth graders and maybe even a third grader or two if they have a stout heart and a big vocabulary!

Something could be on the otherside of that door. Perhaps another world? This is the setting to "Falling In" by Frances O'Roark Dowell. This book was overall inventive; I found that I didn't always know where the author was going with the story, and I like that.

Isabelle Bean is a misfit in her life. She thinks about things differently from the average kid. She ends up having an adventure that explains why she is so different. Or, was it all real? It is kind of similiar to Alice in Wonderland in the sense it leaves you wondering if the author intended the story to be real or not.

I really enjoyed the author's style of writing. She speaks to the reader in a confidential way. It was refreshing. Overall, the book itself is well-written. Nowadays, we get some great storylines, but the quality of writing isn't very good. Not so here. She demonstrates an ability to actually "write" in the true sense of the word. The book is written for ages 8-12. I think boys may like the story as well (or at least read it in secret).

I really enjoyed this book. It is the kind of book you never want to put down. It is sort of a modern twist between Hansel and Gretel and Alice in Wonderland. It makes you wonder if their really is such things as what this book states. The characters are really neat and inspiring. The book takes place in a unique environment, where it is now witch season. It takes unexpected turns on the expected. A person who likes likes fantasy and adventure books would like this story.

Isabelle Bean is not like the others. She's quirky and imaginative, a dreamer. As a result, she is thoroughly ostracized by the kids at school. Even her mother, an orphan and a widow herself, isn't certain how to interact with a girl who doesn't want to shop at the mall for clothes.

Surprisingly stoic about her social status, Isabelle is as much puzzled as troubled by the situation. A great reader, especially of fantasy, she decides she must be a changeling. For one thing, what is that buzzing noise she's been hearing all morning at school? Sent to the principal's office for not paying attention in class, Isabelle steps into the nurse's office and, imagining the possibilities, opens a mysterious door. Her final remark to a classmate waiting for the nurse is, "Yes, I believe I'd like to visit the country of Mice. I'll try to be back by lunchtime, but if I'm not, save one perfect french fry for me, would you?" Then Isabelle "falls in," emerging in another world, another school.

There the children take one look at her clothes and accuse her of being a witch. After semi-convincing them she's not, Isabelle sets out to explore her new domain. It turns out the local villages send their kids away to camp in the forest for fear of a horrible child-eating witch. Isabelle being Isabelle, she heads straight for the witch. Along the way, she meets a village girl named Hen who agrees to accompany her, although Isabelle hides her true purpose. They eventually come to the cottage of an old herbwoman named Grete who feeds them and teaches them her craft--but Isabelle begins to suspect that Grete is the witch.

Other than Isabelle's initial journey to another world and some mild psychic powers, there's not a whole lot of magic in this book. Instead, Dowell is interested in the idea of how someone might come to be labeled a witch, and how awful stories might be born from communal fears. Fortunately, she is also interested in laying such fears to rest.

Isabelle's own connection to this strange land and its witch add further dimension to the tale.

Dowell is best known for her often-moving contemporary and historical realism (e.g., Shooting the Moon), plus her funny school stories about Phineas L. MacGuire, so fantasy's a real departure for her. In fact, I kept feeling like she was drawing back from the magic in her own story. What I'd really like to see is a whole book from this author written in magical realism, since when she uses it in Falling In, her style shines especially bright.

In the end, Isabelle's adventure in the world she visits is more character than plot driven, and a bit didactic to boot. Still, Dowell is talented enough to make this work. She spices her tale with humor, for example: funny little interposed chapters in which she addresses readers and an amusing (yet scary) problem for the witch later in the book. Things do get darker soon after, though, and Isabelle has to do some quick thinking to turn the tide.

Falling In is as quirky as its main character, but it's worth spending time with. And it just might offer comfort and cheer to young dreamers and outsiders.

Note for Worried Parents: This book includes bullying, threats of violence, and an upsetting story about a baby who is hurt. It is generally encouraging, however.

Isabelle doesn't fit in. She's a quiet, dreamy girl who's not shy, which confuses her teachers. She lives with only her mother in possibly the most boring house in the universe. Then one day she goes through a door and -- just as you'd expect -- she's catapulted into a whole different world.

But as you might not expect, Isabelle doesn't really fit into this new world, either. As she tries to help the people she meets -- first children running from a witch, then the witch herself, then the children again -- Isabelle finds acceptance for who she is and learns about accepting others, as well. And yet, somehow, the book is not smarmy, moralistic, or dull. Rather, it's a very well written modern fairy tale that fantasy-loving kids will enjoy thoroughly.

Dreamy girl opens a door into another world where children migrate from town to town to avoid the local witch who is rumored to feast on children. Instead of joining one of these camps, the main character decides to search for the witch (the prospect of meeting a real live witch sounds infinitely more exciting to her than the thought of running from said witch). The story goes from there with various lessons on friendship, loneliness, and cruelty as a response to fear.

The story is written in a humorous and quirky manner. Periodic commentary and asides from the narrator set a nice stage for the story and would make this a fun book to read aloud. While I found it enjoyable, this book is written for audiences on the younger side. Recommended for pre- and early teen girls.

Perfect to read aloud to someone or to enjoy alone, this book is heartwarming and imaginative. Young Isabelle Bean, the eccentric and often misunderstood protagonist, demonstrates the importance of taking leaps of faith into imaginary worlds, opening our hearts and minds to learning new things and embracing what makes us different, even if sometimes rejected by society. While the story feels a little rough in places with changes in narrative style and little digressions, and somehow it feels rushed toward the end, the book is thoroughly enjoyable. Very nice!

I ordered this book from Amazon and had it mailed directly to my granddaughter several states away. She was delighted to have thepackage waiting for her after school. She wanted a book she could read by herself since her mother reads to her every night.
Falling In was that book. She will be thirteen this year. She read it and then we discussed it over the phone. She told me what it was about and afforded us a nice conversation on the phone and we were able to share. She gave it a 5 star rating.

Falling In is a welcome change from the darkness and broodiness that one gets these days in fantasies written for older youth. Without the burden of emotional angst, juvenile fantasies are free to launch readers into imaginative worlds. Written by Frances O'Roark Dowell, Falling In is full of whimsy and diverse friendships!

The summary alone intrigued me: "Isabelle Bean follows a mouse's squeak into a closet and falls into a parallel universe where the children believe she is the witch they have feared for years, finally come to devour them." First, that name Isabelle Bean. By no means nutty, but just enough that it hints at the weird and wacky world too come. Then there's the parallel universe. Immediately, I'm thinking about other examples in fiction such as when Lucy enters Narnia through the wardrobe in The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis or Coraline enters another twin house through a door in the book of the same title by Neil Gaiman. Last, there's the witch. The description "finally come to devour them" makes me think of the wicked witch in Hansel and Gretel. As I'm pretty sure that a middle-school girl who falls through a closet isn't that kind of witch, I'm eager to know exactly who this Isabelle Bean is.

As for the story itself, Falling In is like nothing I had expected for two reasons. First, there is the main character, whose response to a spelling list is to press her ear to her desk. That sounds a tad peculiar, doesn't it? Immediately, I want to know more! Moreover, I'm guessing that Isabelle gets into trouble with teachers. Dowell doesn't instantly allow Isabelle to escape her real world, which allows me as a reader to find out how much of an outcast she is. Of course, readers should be able to empathize with the main character, and so Isabelle is a likeable eccentric. When her teacher Mrs. Sharpe orders her to the principal's office, Isabelle wonders: "Why always the same old thing? Couldn't Mrs. Sharpe come up with something original? Why not shoot Isabelle out of a cannon, send her flying over the top of the playground's monkey bars?" Naturally, this being a fantasy story, Isabelle never makes it to the principal's office. Instead she hears that mouse squeak and it's bye-bye school!

The second reason Falling In is like nothing I had expected is because of the twists and turns in the plot. Isabelle terrifies and then befriends a group of children who helpfully advise her to seek out the camps in the woods -and so naturally Isabelle heads in the opposite direction. Perhaps she is really a witch after all?"It didn't help that Isabelle started pondering the notion that she might be a changeling, because she believed herself to have abnormal powers. Then Hen appears. (Another perfect name, don't you think?) Isabelle convinces Hen that she knows a shortcut to the camps, which isn't turn. And then later it turns out that Hen has a secret or two of her own. Nothing ever goes the way I expect in this story, which is why I read it in a couple of sittings.
I hope by now you understand why I say Falling In is full of whimsy. What about those diverse friendships? Well, there is Grete, a mysterious old woman the children meet in the woods who knows Isabel's mom. How is that possible, when the two live in parallel universes? Then there is Elizabeth, a girl from the camps who like Hen has a secret or two of her own. There's also eight-year-old Jacob who flubs some very important plans. And for the animal factor, there is a reclusive brown spider. To find out its purpose, you'll need to read Falling In for yourself.

There is one thing that I'm not sure whether I liked. Now and then, Dowell interrupts the regular narrative to impose an author's voice: "I'd like to stop here for a moment, if I could. I want you to think about how many times you've opened a door. What happened? You twisted the knob, pushed or pulled, walked inside or outside, or from one room to another." Sometimes these interjections make me feel as if like Jill Murphy in The Worst Witch that Dowell is in the room telling me the story. Other times, her interjections seemed too rambling and cute.

Now before I end my review, I want to tell you about one last thing I liked about Falling In. About a year ago, the Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor influenced my ideas about imagination. Dowell also explores this theme. When Isabelle wonders if she is a changeling, Dowell interjects to say: "Please don't tell me you go to one of those schools where they only teach things you can prove.... Do you hear me sighing? I want you to march into your principal's office first thing in the morning and say, `I demand you educate my imagination!'" Later, Isabelle discovers that Hen is familiar with changelings and makes the observation that the most interesting things in the world are currently out of fashion. And, much later, Grete explains to Isabelle that others are unable to find this parallel universe because they don't have the ability to see things that aren't there. Now I'm thinking back to a line in Peter Pan: Every time a child says they don't believe in fairies, somewhere a fairy falls dead. Here, I must take a step back and admit that young adult novels are doing their part to keep alive our knowledge of fantastical creatures. However, they're also full of angst and romance instead of appeals to my imagination, and so I still prefer a good juvenile fantasy.

Falling In by Frances O'Rourke Dowell fits this latter category. While imparting valuable lessons about friends and prejudice, it is also imaginative and playful. Dowell doesn't know if she'll write another fantasy; Falling In is not her typical fare. However, I really enjoyed it and so will be reading her realistic fiction. I'm also rooting for her to write more fantasies.