Falling in

Dowell's (Shooting the Moon) first fantasy novel features sixth-grader Isabelle Bean, an unconventional protagonist who prefers thrift stores to malls and demonstrates an "impressive talent for irritating teachers." Isabelle's adventure begins in the school nurse's office, where she discovers an entrance into another world and meets a group of children fleeing from a witch. As fate would have it, the "witch"--mistreated and misunderstood by villagers--turns out to be Isabelle's biological grandmother. Much of the novel focuses on the healing powers and sad history of Isabelle's grandmother and Isabelle's effort to set the record straight. Readers may be amused by the narrator's digressions, backtracking, direct addresses ("You want me to tell you where Isabelle is, don't you? You want me to spell it out for you, draw you a map, paint a picture. Well, I'm not going to do it"), and impish tone, though it can feel a bit forced. Perhaps too many facts are left to the imagination: how Isabelle has changed and what she has gained from her experiences remain questionable at the end of the book. Ages 8-12.
--"Publishers Weekly" (Mar.)

Like Alice through the looking glass, Isabelle Bean finds herself in a parallel universe, where she's mistaken for a witch, then finds out her grandmother is a witch.

Frances O'Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I'd Like to Be; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; The Second Life of Abigail Walker, which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; The Class; How to Build a Story; and most recently, Hazard. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.