The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
ISBN: 978-1-56512-680-0
Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black American soldier, survives the fall from an apartment rooftop. Her mother, brother, and sister are not as fortunate and die. Rachel, a young girl, is taken in by her paternal grandmother into a new city, into a mostly black community for the first time. Raised by her mother as white, she is now identified as black. Rachel struggles to find her own identity, outside of society’s attempt to define her by her skin, while dealing with the grief and mystery surrounding her family’s tragic end.
Read excerpt.
Read the Book Rating Scale.
- Realism: 6. The book is plausible, for the most part. The people are real; from the values that give rise to the strict parenting style of Rachel’s grandmother to the jealous behavior of the girls in Rachel’s new school. Rachel is a real girl, too. Although I found her a bit shallow and a know-it-all. The score would have been higher if not for some ridiculously implausible circumstances late in the book.
- Enjoyment: 6. The book reads well. Durrow’s writing is very smooth and clear. One thing that could have been done better is the maturation of Rachel’s voice, as she grows older, since her chapters in the book are told from her 1st-person view.
- Entertainment: 5. I really didn’t like Rachel. I found her shallow and at times annoying, another pretty girl with smarts that thinks she knows everything — which only intensified when she becomes a teenager. I did not find her a sympathetic character either — which is a good thing. The one character I really enjoyed was Brick. I enjoyed his story.
- Impact: 7. A good story about identity in America. There are times that I question if Rachel dislikes black people — unless they act a certain way; closer to the way her mother raised her. Which makes me ask: why is identity in America so closely tied to race and skin color? This book adds to the conversation. The impact of substance abuse is also a theme prevalent in the book.
Score: 24/40
One of the books that I didn’t like reading but I enjoy talking about. The book raises some interesting questions. I just don’t find the book entertaining and I actively dislike the protagonist.
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