It is the early 1980s, and America is in love with space. Growing up in the shadow of Cape Canaveral, young Dolores Gray has it particularly bad: she dreams of becoming an astronaut.

At school, Dolores finds herself caught between her desire for popularity and her secret friendship with the smartest and most unpopular boy in her class, whose father is NASA's Director of Launch Safety. At home, discord begins to grow between her parents when her father's job as a NASA technician is threatened.

Looking for escape, Dolores loses herself in her scrapbook, where she files away newspaper articles about the astronauts and the shuttles, weather reports on launch scrubs, and stories about her idol, Judith Resnik.

Then, on the morning of January 28, 1986, seventy-three seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing all seven astronauts on board — including Judith Resnik. It is a moment that shakes America to its core, and nowhere is it more deeply felt than in central Florida. Dolores becomes determined to reconstruct what went wrong, both in her parent's marriage and at NASA, in the hope that she can save her father's job and keep her family together.

The Time It Takes to Fall is a coming-of-age novel that deftly weaves the story of one family's drama into the larger picture of a touchstone event in American history. It is at once an intimate look at a young girl's loss of innocence and a portrait of America's loss of innocence — the end of an era that romanticized manned space flight and would never be the same again.

"The 1986 Challenger explosion is juxtaposed with a disintegrating 'Space Coast' Florida family in Dean's tepid debut. Dolores Gray dreams of becoming an astronaut like her idol, Judith Resnik and lives in what is essentially as NASA company town: at school, everyone's father works for space agency, and the bureaucratic hierarchy extends from the Cape Canaveral launch pad to the school playground. Funding for space exploration is precarious, however, and when Dolores's father, who is a technician, is laid off, Dolores's parents' marriage goes into a tailspin; Dolores's mother leaves, and the going-on-13 Dolores has to face adolescence on her own — including romances with two boys whose fathers are placed higher in NASA's administration than hers. Dolores's father has a hard time recovering once his wife is gone, and the Challenger disaster only exacerbates his trouble. The setting and Dean's ability to make rocket science understandable add some appeal to what is essentially a stock-in-trade coming-of-age." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Taking as her backdrop the Challenger shuttle disaster, Dean subtly probes the hidden design flaws at the heart of the American family. Emulating the engineers and astronauts her characters orbit, her work is equal parts cool precision and wondrous dream. If a novel can be likened to a spacecraft — both are an intricate assembly of hundreds of thousands of parts — Dean's is flawlessly constructed, ready to launch the reader on a soaring emotional trajectory."

-- Peter Ho Davies, author of Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World

"Affecting, original debut about a girl's coming-of-age, set against the backdrop of the NASA space-shuttle program...an accomplished first novel about the American family."

-- Kirkus (starred review)

In January 1986, the "Challenger" disaster shocked the world. The ensuing investigation threatens to tear Dolores Haye's family and community apart. She must find a way to reconstruct what went wrong both in her family and at NASA, without losing sight of her dreams.

Set against the palm trees and marshes of central Florida, The Time It Takes To Fall takes place in the 1980s. Reagan is President, America is winning the space war, and Dolores Hayes in ten years old living in the shadow of Cape Canaveral. Her father Frank works as a technician for NASA, assembling rockets fro launch, and Dolores dreams of flying in space herself. As Dolores starts fifth grade two things happen: first, Doloress father, Frank, is laid off; second, Dolores befriends a strange, unpopular boy, Eric Biersdorfer. Erics father is a NASA bigwig and may be the man who could get Frank his job back.

As Dolores collects clippings about the shuttle launches and awkwardly interacts with Eric (her only intellectual peer), Dolores mother tries to take advantage of Dolores new friendships. The Time It Takes To Fall follows Dolores uncomfortable metamorphosis from girlhood to adolescence, the crucial moments when she makes all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons. When her parents split, Dolores finds herself turning away from everything meaningful to her except her secret stockpiling of shuttle news, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, whom Dolores sister thinks looks just like their now-absent mom

In January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger disaster shocks the world, and the ensuing investigation threatens to tear Dolores family and community apart. She must find a way to reconstruct what went wrong both in her family and at NASA, without losing sight of her dreams.