Falling
I just wanted to mention about what has recently happened in my school. I go to Rutland Middle School. Our teacher has started reading Falling to us and the students really liked it. Lately, our entire half (the 8th grade is broken into two halves by language) has almost become addicted and obsessed with the book. Our teacher is running out of copies to give students to read out of school because they can't wait for us to read it in class. I have never seen the kids in my school respond to a book like this. It truly has amazed me and i loved the book.
response from Doug
Hi,
This is very exciting! I have also heard from Laura Foley, the teacher who organized the reading project, about the strong response kids are having to the book, but your message makes it even more real. I'm going to be visiting RMS next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, talking with all the kids involved in this project. It will be fun and, I hope, interesting for everyone to learn how much RMS students actually contributed to the development of the key characters in this book, and how they helped to critique the opening chapters as well. In a previous posting on this Author Forum, I described that process as well.
I wanted this story, and these characters, to feel real to young readers -- and I knew that students at RMS would "know" the kids I was making up, so I asked them for help in doing that. Now in reading the book, you are experiencing the results of that. In writing FALLING, I felt as if these were real kids — that they were a lot like the actual students that I knew in visiting and volunteering at RMS. So to hear this kind of response from you means a lot to me. It means that together, we made this story feel pretty true.
Thanks for writing -- and please make sure you introduce yourself when I'm there next week!
best,
Doug
I am looking forward to your
I am looking forward to your visit and i will. thanks