If I could travel back in time I’d spend more than a few
extra moments thanking Dr. Lisa Regula for breathing some new life into this
blog with this review, for all who love (or are awaiting an introduction to)
Doctor Who. Thank you! Now without further ado….
Summer Falls is an interesting book, in part because it
began life as not-a-book.
While
it’s quite common for a book to be turned into a movie, or for classic
literature to organically become a part of the popular lexicon (and thus be
featured as a touchstone in other works), this book
began as a plot point in
the long-running British television series,
Doctor Who, before being written as
a free-standing book.
This nearly
guarantees a high potential audience, as
Doctor Who is one of (if not the)
longest-running series in history, and about to celebrate its fiftieth
anniversary on the air.
(There was
a break from production, from 1989 to 2005 with a movie in 1996, but it’s a
fiftieth anniversary, nonetheless.)
Doctor Who Fans Likely to Fall for Summer Falls
Amelia Williams is one of the characters in recent seasons
of
Doctor Who, and the ghostwriter is Doctor Who television producer and book
writer James Goss.
Amelia Williams
is one of the companions of the Doctor, a human traveler accompanying the
Doctor on his adventures and often serving as both conscience and colleague to
the nearly-immortal last of the Time Lords of Gallifrey.
Amelia Williams (known more commonly as
Amelia Pond) was one of the longest-running companions, and one of the few to
have a companion of her own in the series, Rory Williams, whom she eventually
marries before parting ways with the Doctor.
Amelia, in her life after the Doctor, settled down with Rory
to live their own story, becomes an author, and in at least two instances, her
books are featured as helpful to the Doctor in solving some problem or
mystery.
Hopefully, that gives you
a little background into
Summer Falls and how it came about.
Doctor Who and Who Else? A Pharmacist, an Evil Lord, and Talking Animals
Kate is a girl finding her way in a new town, where she and
her mother have moved shortly before the start of a new school year. Kate’s mother seems to be suffering
depression, and Kate has little use for the mother, or most people, for that
matter. She mistrusts boys and
adults, until she meets Barnabas, an odd museum curator in the town of Watchcombe. Shortly after meeting Barnabas and Armand,
a misfit neighbor boy whose pharmacist father is suspected of poisoning
pensioners, the world is turned upside down for the trio by a painting and
another loner, along with a dog and talking cat. It’s up to the youngsters to save the world from an old
evil, the Lord of Winter, and his trickster accomplice.
Given the choice between starting a new
year of school, or an eternal snow day, the Lord of Winter’s promise seems a
temptation that most kids can understand, and the disdain at the ineptness of
adults is something with which all of us can sympathize.
If you enjoy the sense of wonder in Doctor Who, or just want to while away an afternoon with a pleasant tale, try Summer Falls on for size, whatever size you may be.
Doctor Who BBC ebooks: Reading Level, Recommendations
Summer Falls is appealing as a work of older tween or young
adolescent fiction, but it bears enough marks of the Doctor Who world to find
an audience with adult Whovians as well. Anglophiles especially will enjoy this
story, as it takes place in the United Kingdom, and features an obvious touch
of British culture. While the
book’s setting doesn’t specify a timeframe, I think it’s safe to place it in
the 1950’s or so, before the advent of cell phones and computers and during
that nostalgic post-war period that we collectively enjoy romanticizing. The language is simple, and sentences
plain, which makes for a good reading level for children about the age of the
main character, Kate; it’s just as good for a quick afternoon vacation read for
adults. The tone also fits
perfectly in line with that of the target reader, with its heavy use of proper
nouns, and other marks developmentally appropriate to an 11-14 year old. While you can’t tuck a little tome in a
beach bag and enjoy a simple text on paper, the book is available on Kindle,
and thanks to the computer science wizardry of Kindle on PC, and there are also
iPad, Android, Mac versions and more available in case you have other tech
devices you prefer.
Like a lot of first works, the first half is more artful than the second. Then again, a slower pace in the beginning, when Diffenbaugh shares the story in dollops - a fistful of flowers here, a sniff of the past there - serves the reader fairly well. In the beginning, she draws her characters carefully, petal by petal. So as the plot builds and life is uprooted (once again) for Victoria Jones, recently emancipated ward of the state, readers have been prepped to accept her choices and actions.
Look, this blog is intended to give advice about what to read, or not. My advice on this book is: READ IT.