Featured works

Works listed in this section are recommended by North Portland Library staff. Also, see past featured works.

February 2012

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow: Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010.

This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community in Portland, where her light brown skin, blue eyes and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is the 2012 selection for Multnomah County Library's community reading project, Everybody Reads.