Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

The fireside lounge reading was pretty good. Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Ms. Hempel Chronicles had a chance to speak to the young readers at Canisius and explain the significance of her famed book. It was interesting to find out that many of the characters she used from her story actually resembled many of the past students and teachers that she had. Also, how she came up with the name Ms. Hempel was based upon another author by the name of Amy Hempel. Sarah Bynum said that she had no thoughts planned when she wrote the Ms. Hempel Chronicles and had no idea that it would become such a hit with the public. She even read chapter one of her story to the audience, which described the school talent show and the students who were performing. It was great experience and very informative onto the process of how she became such a successful author.
(David Roberts, Fireside Lounge Speaking)

Intertwine

I thought that this next section in the book was kind of confusing, because it jumped around a lot from talking about Rachel, Brick, and introducing Roger (Rachel's father). It not only jumped around from talking about each individual, but it also would flash back and forward between time periods almost expecting the audience to know eactly what is going on. This was actually interesting, because we were slowly introduced to the charcters with Rachel being most significant, and we would soon discover that each of these characters were someone related to one another. Roger was only but a mystery in the first section of reading, but now he is believed to be Rachel's father, who has been absent due to the military. Brick is even seen communicating with Roger at the hospital while he is visitng Rachel, however, we do not know why Brick is there to begin with. It seems as though the author is trying to paint a bigger picture for us as the audience to see, because each character has such a diverse background, which are all slowly coming together. They are connected in some way, shape, or form only for the true story yet to be revealed.

While viewing the many characters in the story, I found Roger to stand out the most. Up until now, there has been no real mention of Rachel's father, until we are given what appears to be a flashback to Rachel's appearance in the hospital. It is unknown as to why she was there, but Roger is seen at the bed side weeping for his ill daughter. There was also a mention of a flask that he frequently drinks from while visiting Rachel. I feel as though he might be a possible alcoholic, because in an earlier flashback, he is seen drunk at a bar where he hits his wife, Nella. The rest of that night ends in disaster when a fire catches the place where he is staying and he loses sight of his son. It's almost as if he uses the flask at the hospital to not only calm his nerves, but to also remind himself of the past. Rachel seems to be the only person he has left, and is scared of being alone in this world. It is this fear that drives him back to visit his daughter, and to sort of reconcile to himself about what has happened.
(David Roberts, Post 6)

Hide and Seek

I find Rachel's character in the story to be quite intriguing. She seems lost not only in this world, but in herself as well. She is the "new girl" quite possibly meaning that she is neither black nor white, but rather a new race in her own mind. It is evident that Rachel is very much affected by this and she comes across as being very sensitive in nature. She tries to hide her feelings about her position in life, but is desperately seeking to find her true self. It would be heart breaking to not know who you really are in life, but only to be lost in your thoughts and feelings, which is how Rachel is portrayed to be. Still, Rachel has her grandmother and Aunt Loretta, who seem to be her true anchorage in this world.

Jamie is another character in the story who seems to troubled in a way similar to Rachel. He seems rather reserved and quiet, and he appears to be alone. His mother is constantly having male suitors over at the apartment, thereby leaving Jamie (a.k.a. Brick) to fend for himself. I felt sad reading about his story, because he has no real possessions except for his bird book, which he stole from the library. It's almost as if he is looking beyond everything around him, as if he his position in life does not bother him. He wants nothing more than to examine the different birds from his book and to forget about everything around him. It is not until he discovers the bodies in the courtyard do we see a slight change in Jamie. He gives up his most prized possession, the Peterson Field Guide, and places it on the shrine. It seems as though he has seen the harsh truths of reality, and he no longer needs a book to tell him about the world, when he can see it and witness it first hand.
(David Roberts, Post 5)

Why birds?

This was a sad passage but one filled with great imagery. His account of the shadow of the bodies falling was quite intriguing to me. Can you imagine running to the window filled with glee and the thought that you are about to see this magnificent bird only to see bodies. The author describes the bodies as birds as an example "bird-boy's right arm, which was folded like a wing beneath him.". I wonder if maybe the author isn't trying to foreshadow something or give hint to why this happened. Was the family trying to get away from something? Why were they leaving the nest? I think that Jamie is so infatuated with birds because he himself wants to fly away. He wants to be more. He lies to the reporter to feel important. He changes his name. Jamie puts himself down for thinking the shadow was that of a bird. Jamie or James decides that now he will learn about birds by there sound and yet again starts to compare the sounds of people he hears.

I really like what the author did in this section. She took something so horrific and made it into imagery that was easier to stomach. This section to me makes me picture the spirits of these children and mother flying away going to a peaceful place. I compare this story to the Red Convertible both stories had death in them however in someway the deaths were made to seem like a release. I don't mean the deaths seemed good but the way they were described seemed as if there shouldn't be anything to worry about. This family was a a family of birds trying to fly away, but why? Maybe this was the only option. Maybe this was there way to escape. I don't know.
Thomas Moss (post 5)

Keeping Yourself Protected

In this portion of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Rachel is truly making an effort to hide her real self. She mentions two different kinds of feelings at the beginning of the novel: the “new girl” feeling, and the “girl in a new dress” feeling. This distinction between the two is very important because the “girl in a new dress” feeling applies to the old Rachel, while the “new girl” feeling is all about the new Rachel. At the beginning of the book, the old Rachel is still stronger than the new. She has not had much time to build up this new persona, which is why her new girl feeling had completely disappeared when the puddle water splashed on her. She continues to build up this idea of herself as a “new girl” throughout the rest of the reading.

This new Rachel is her public self: the one who is visible to the rest of the world. She keeps the old Rachel buried deep beneath layer of protection, like the promises she has made to herself about not feeling sad, and being okay. I think she wants to hide her true self because there isn’t anyone that she feels comfortable enough to share all of her true feelings with, or someone who won’t judge her. I feel that there is a lack of sympathy in her new surroundings. No one wants her about how she is really feeling. Her grandmother and aunt avoid talking about what happened, especially anything concerning her mor. So Rachel gathers information on who this new Rachel should be from everyone she meets, she continues build up this protection around her true self. She keeps her true emotions hidden in the blue glass bottle inside the protected part of her old self. She hides all of this from everyone because she feels the need to fit in with all of the people surrounding her in this new life. Her old self certainly didn’t fit in with all of these people’s expectations, which is what prompted her to keep her true identity and emotions locked up. It is common knowledge nowadays that keeping all of this bottled up inside can be quite dangerous, so it will be interesting to see if and how it affects Rachel through the rest of the book.

(Sarah Jaworowicz, Post 5)

The Double Nature of Rachel's Grandmother

When Rachel first moves in with her grandmother and aunt, she is flooded with new information about her African American background. Before this time, Rachel had not considered that this part of her ethnicity was so vastly different from the Danish part of her ethnicity that she understood so well. Once Rachel moves to Oregon she is faced with the fact that she is biracial; a fact that she never considered before this time. The minute she arrives at her grandmothers she is told, in both insidious and obvious ways, that she must embrace her African American heritage and forget about her Danish past. Her grandmother plays a very large role in relaying this message. For example, the gift she receives from grandma upon her arrival is a pair of black raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Also, her grandma does not acknowledge Rachel's Danish mother. She does not have a single picture of her, and won't even utter her name or make reference to her. Its as if Nella did not even exist in grandma's mind. Lastly, grandma embraces all the parts of Rachel that reflect her African American ethnicity, such as her hair. In these subtle ways grandma is sending Rachel a very strong message; although she is biracial, she must embrace her black heritage and deny her Danish background. Once Rachel begins school this message is further reinforced by her classmates in a much more direct manner.

Grandma showed Rachel that although she is of biracial decent, she cannot culturally be both black and Danish. Rachel must choose one ethnicity, and grandma made it very clear which choice she should make. Although grandma is so adamant about denying Rachel's eastern European decent, in certain instances grandma both acts in ways and encourages her family to act in ways that would be considered "white" by their community's standards. For example, grandma was the first black person to own a house in their Portland Oregon neighborhood. Rather than remain content in their Texas home, she decided to integrate herself and her family into a predominantly white neighborhood. Grandma also encouraged Loretta to play tennis; which was considered a white sport at this time, and her son to play piano; which was considered to be a white instrument. These behaviors by grandma markedly conflict with the message she is trying to send Rachel. Grandma's hypocritical actions further Rachel's identity confusion as well as cause Rachel's view of the world to become based on race.

Cailee Januszkiewicz-1

Sonny and the Piano

The passage that interested me the most was the part when the writer is talking about music and what music does for the musician. He talks about how it looks like everyone else on the bandstand was holding him back but then once he took a deeper look, he realized it was Creole that was holding everyone back. He was holding them back because he wanted Sonny to really give it his all. The way he talks about music it really shows the importance that music has on our society, and always has had. It is a way for the musician to tell a story but without words. The author does a great job at describing how important music is for the musician and how hard it is for them to tell the story but it is also empowering. The author also describes the difficulty that Sonny is having.

The way that I read the section about "Creole watching Sonny and wanting him to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water," was he wanted Sonny to break out of his comfort zone. Creole wanted Sonny to really prove himself as a musician. Sonny needed move out of this place where he started to break free but at the same time he was very cautious. Creole was waiting for Sonny to really shine to show his brother how good at playing the piano he really was. He wanted this to be Sonny's time to shine. (Kelcey Summers, 4)