I swear to you, I am not deliberately making a study of books where the narrator speaks directly to the reader! I was knowingly choosing fairy tale-ish books for a little while and perhaps that opens the door to direct narrator communication…but I’d have to make a deliberate study in order to know for sure. 😉 However, while Frances O’Roark Dowell‘s Falling In does have this narrative style, it’s a delightful book and I’ll get to why you won’t mind in a minute!

The story follows Isabelle Bean, who is a dreamer who believes she’s a changeling. This would be distracting enough, but she’s also hearing an odd buzzing coming from…could it be under the school? When she gives the odd sounds more attention than she does her teacher, she winds up in the principals office, cooling the heels of her fancy new rummaged red boots. And that results in her peeking in the supply closet, and somehow falling into a fairy tale type world!

Unfortunately, she arrives at an unsettled time, when many children are hiding in a woodsy camp for kids because it’s believed that the witch is on the hunt for them and will eat the babies. Worse, when Isabelle first shows up, they take one look at her red boots and suspect she could be the witch. I don’t want to give away spoilers (since this book has plenty of them) so let’s move instead to what I liked about the story, including my surprise at finding the direct narrator working for me.

In recent posts I’ve talked about the way a direct breaking-the-third-wall narrative style can provide distance for readers, allowing them to deal with difficult story material. I’ve also talked about how this style can enhance the feeling of sitting at the storyteller’s feet, hearing a story. But the narrator in this book is totally different from those and in fact helps the reader feel further pulled into the book. It adds closeness, since instead of pausing the story with an intrusion, it adds to the feeling that the story is being told by an eye witness who gets overly excited at times and adds their own insights on the action as it plays out. This narrator also feels very much like a peer to the reader, with non of the didactic feeling sometimes present. In fact, I found myself eagerly reading when I got to a directly narrated bit, since the viewpoint of the narrator was super funny and enjoyable in itself.

Why that is becomes apparent late in the book, almost at the end, but if you find yourself rolling your eyes at the thought of reading another book in this style–have no fear and give it a try!

Other bits I loved where the wonderful way words are used to paint mental pictures–so clear I know many will forever stay with me as paintings on the walls of my brain–as well as the fanciful aspects to the world building (books that write themselves!) and the details shared throughout on herbal lore. This last is woven in with such skill that even the most reluctant reader will find themselves gobbling it up, and is further enhanced by the occasional light sketch of a plant and its uses, in the corner of a page. Truly delightful, all of it!

Now, let’s see what Apricot-kitty thought of it:

“You know, those villagers had their trouble coming to them! Did their complaining children every think of that? It was their own parents or their parents’ friends whose guilty conscience brought the witch’s wrath down on them, so if they wanted to point fingers that’s where they should be looking.”

I confess that I longed for someone to make Apricot-kitty’s point somewhere in the book, perhaps because this book already has such lovely story circles that I wanted their karma circle pointed out. However, readers who catch that will notice the cycle’s perpetuation and possible resolution and anything further might have been outside the main character’s pov, so perhaps it’s just as well for the author to keep the writing subtle. I do have to add how much I enjoyed the characters of all the children, and the natural portrayal of their challenges, flaws, and ways of interacting. Ms. Dowell’s deft writing will come as a surprise to no one, but was thoroughly enjoyable all the same.

What books are you reading this fall? Got any in particular picked out? I have two to share in the next few weeks that I’m particularly looking forward to, and another that I’m hoping I’ll slip under the wire before Halloween. To celebrate the fall equinox I made my first pumpkin pie of autumn, and can’t wait to dive into the fun of my favorite season! Here, I’ve even brought a piece to share. <3

To see the rest of the Marvelous Middle Grade roundup of reviews, giveaways, spotlights and interviews, stop by Greg Pattridge’s blog, and happy reading!

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