Title: Fallen
Author: Lauren Kate
Summary
When it comes to choosing books for Young Adults, I often struggle to figure out which ones to choose. Probably because I typically work with lower elementary students, so my experience there is limited. However, I know that when I was a young adult the first book that actually peaked my interest and that I enjoyed reading outside of normal school based texts was the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. I know it is cliche that as a highschool teen I enjoyed a vampire love story, but my teenage girl brain and heart loved it. I not ashamed to say that I pretty much devoured reading through the whole entire book series. Twilight falls into the genre/category of fantasy fiction. So when it came to finding a book for this weeks fantasy themed books, I kinda looked for something that my teenage self would enjoy. The book that I found and decided to read is titled ¨Fallen¨ by Lauren Kate. To my surprise it isn´t a newer book, its been around for a little bit. The book was published back in 2009 which was during all of the Twilight hype so I´m assuming that is why I missed it. I kind of wish I had found it back when I was in my young adult years, because I do strongly believe I would have really enjoyed it back then. However, reading now in my mid thirties I still thought it was a decent and entertaining read. ¨Fallen¨ is a fictional fantasy story about fallen angels with a good love story thrown in. The main character in this novel is a teenage girl named Lucinda Price. Throughout the story Lucinda goes by Luce for short. The story begins with Luce getting sent to a reform school out in Savannah, Georgia. The name of the school is called Sword and Cross. Luce is sent to this school because she is partially blamed for an accident at a summercamp where her crush tragically passes. Luce does not fully remember what happened to the boy, just knows that they happened to kiss and then a fire of sorts broke up unexplainably. Moving on to Luce´s time at Sword and Cross, she meets and array of interesting students. A girl named Arraine and Penn become close friends to Luce. A few other characters that Luce meets and that are main characters in the story is a girl named Gabbe and Molly, and a boy named Cam which is short for Cameron and Roland. Another main character and the love interest in this story is a boy named Daniel Gregory. Throughout the story there are odd occurences where Luce sees shadows and sometimes an unexpected fire erupts similar to her history with her previous crush. Also throughout the story Luce begins to notice the subject area of Angels being taught, and there other suspicious occurences that seem to connect back to that subject area. Luce finds herself pulled towards Daniel, but Cam also tries to make his advances on her as well. Finally it is revealed to Luce that all the students at Sword and Cross are Fallen Angels, some on different sides. Daniel and Luce are apparently cursed to love each other throughout many lifetimes, but Luce never lives long in any of their meetings. Daniel is forced to lose Luce each time. However, this time is differen´t because Luce´s family were not of a religious background. The book has you rooting for Luce and Daniel to finally get their happy ending, but of course the end of the book has you needing to read the sequel to see if that is truly going to happen.
Classroom Activities
I think the book Fallen is a great book to have available as a resources for students to utilize for personal reading interests. I´m not sure if I would directly incorporate this particular book into an actual lesson plan or have them assigned to read it directly. The reasons I say this is because first the topic of religion or angels. This book doesn´t teach one way or the other, but we do live in a sensitive world and I wouldn´t want to step on any toes. The other reason is, I think young adult girls would typically enjoy it more than the boys. The material is engaging and follows right along with their age range. I just think it would probably be something that students would read in their free or personal time. Our textbook Readicide has taught us the importance that students should be able to read books that interest them and promote and enjoyment of reading. That is something that I do think this book accomplishes. Now while I might not directly implement this particular book in my classroom lessons, that is not to say it doesn´t have value or that there couldn´t be activities done with it. If an educator did have their students read this story, I think have students complete a timeline graphic organizer would be beneficial. The story line often jumps back and forth to different time periods. I also think if there were a group of students who seemed interested in this book, then maybe a small group discussion of sorts could be implemented with them regarding the story. The teacher could assist the students that are interested in this type of book with a guided discussion over their thoughts over the topic throughout or at the end of the story. One thing I love about this particular book is it is the first book in a six part series. I personally have only read the first book, but it definitely peaked my interest enough to want to see what happens next in the plot line and with the other characters. I think book series like this one are great for young readers because it promotes further reading and develops their love for reading in itself. So overall I would definitely recommend this book to be available in a local classroom library for students to utilize.
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