Baby Got Books

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

In the midst of my continuing quest to ensure that my bi-racial daughter is ready for any racial challenge, I was fortunate enough to receive The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by first time author Heidi Durrow (Thanks Tim). I was led to believe that this story is solely about a young bi-racial girl’s identity crisis. This would have been a-ok for me. Surprisingly, it turned out to be much more than that. It is also about a young girl’s quest to make sense of a horrible family tragedy and her longing for a parental love that all girls need as they grow up.

After a horrible accident, Rachel whose dad is black and mom is Danish, finds herself in Portland, Oregon with her paternal grandma. The story begins with questions about her race from strangers that she never experienced before. When asked “What are you?” She answers with “I’m a good speller, I’m smart” and she realizes this is not what they want to know. “Papa never told us we were black.” It’s troubling for her since she never before thought about what it meant to be “black”. The family lived in Germany before moving to the United States which can explain her confusion. Even her mom is confused by this and writes in her own diary: ”Roger never was black. He was charming and fun and handsome…..I wasn’t ever thinking he was black.” The black girls at school make fun of Rachel and tell her that she is not black enough, her eyes are blue, her skin is too light, her hair isn’t right, she’s too smart.

This topic of not being truly black could be explored more from the bi-racial point of view. It is interesting to me that a lot of black people tell other black people that they must act, look and believe certain things in order to be legitimately “black” or “African American.” I’ve never had anyone tell me that I’m supposed to think a certain way or have certain friends because I’m white. In this case, Rachel has never been aware of color differences in people and it is a rude awakening.

While Rachel works on her racial identity, she is raised by an “old-school” grandma. Grandma isn’t very communicative or affectionate with Rachel. Rachel, who doesn’t have either parent, needs this affection and love and ends up finding it in other ways. In addition, Rachel remembers in bits and pieces what happened on that fateful evening with her family.

Rachel has a lot going on. She copes with all of these emotions by putting everything into a blue jar inside of her. She describes the jar to a family friend one evening:

“…I imagine that inside of a person there’s a blue bottle, you know?…The bottle is where everything sad or mean or confusing can go. But in the bottle there is a seed that you let grow. Even in the bottle it can grow big and green. It’s full of all those feelings that are in there, but beautiful and growing too.”

Rachel frequently refers to the bottle and I think it’s such a beautiful description.

The story is unique in the way it is told. Rachel and her mother are told in the first person, and her mother’s journals are represented in a different font and in broken English (certainly with a Danish accent). The stories of Laronne (boss of Rachel’s mother) and Brick, a neighbor boy who is a cool character in his own right, are told in the third person. These literally devices are not at all off putting and actually help tell the story in a creative way.

As a mom, this book made me want to hold Rachel and tell her that everything would work out. As a female who grew up without a strong father it made me want to tell Rachel that it will be ok but to be careful. It made me cry, laugh and get angry. The book left me wanting to know more…I want to know more about the characters’ history, I want to know where they end up later in life and I want an entire book on Brick! In a short amount of time Ms. Durrow made me really care about all the characters.

Three cheers to Ms. Durrow who made me yearn for both a sequel and a prequel!