fallingin

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Book Reviews and Synopses

Falling In

Frances O'roark Dowell

Dowell, Frances. Falling In. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division. New York. 2010.

Falling in, by Frances Dowell, is a whimsical story about a twelve year-old girl who discovers a secret, magical forest behind her large 100 year old house. The writing is very unique, and there are many suspenseful and exciting moments in Falling in, but some chapters seem pointless and boring.

Falling in begins with Marie and her mother moving into an old, large, house deep in the forests of Africa. Little did they know that they would have to face many challenges in their future. As Marie is moving into her little dusty room with her creaky little bed, she sees movement outside of her window. She feared it was a tiger or an ostrich, but she noticed that the animals fur was multi colored, and it seemed much smaller than any animal she knew of. This made Marie extremely curious, so she quickly unpacked her things and went into the mysterious woods to investigate.

As Marie entered the mysterious forest, she felt very comfortable and relaxed. Marie was expecting the forest to have an eerie feeling to it, but that was not the case. She looked around at all the tall trees swaying in the wind. Then, something bright caught her eye near the trunk of a tree. She cautiously moved closer to the bright object and looked closely. It was a small, golden key! She gasped in excitement, the key was beautiful and shiny. She carefully picked the key up and put it safely in her pocket.

Four years later, Marie finds the key under her mattress where she had hid it from her mom so she wouldn’t accuse her of stealing it. Marie hadn’t been in the forest since then, but she suddenly had the urge to go discover what the key could open. Late one night, Marie goes into the forest and gets extremely lost, but she doesn’t focus on all of the terrible things that could happen. She needs to find what the key opens, and she has a hunch on what it could be.

Falling In is a great childrens’ and young adults’ book. It has many great moments and the author really captures each moment in the story. There are many chapters that don’t seem necessary in the book, which takes away from the creative storyline.

2 out of 5 stars

Contributed by A. Valentine

March 14, 2013