If I Could Fly (Finished)

       Fifteen-year-old Doris is the daughter of singers, a father who is a musician and a mother who is a singer.  Her parents have always spent more time performing in nightclubs than watching there own daughter. They  expect her to take care of herself while they take care of what they need to do first.  But after her mother goes to Puerto Rico and her father finds a girlfriend, Doris is more alone than ever. Doris turns to her best friends for help and guidance, Arturo and Yolanda, to discover that  they are both mixed up in their own problem and they are no help to her.  Doris finds peace in taking pigeons on her roof. She tires to make sense of friends, family, and how quickly life changes, she learns that, just like the pigeons, she will have to fly far distances before she finds out where she can make a home for herself and feel that she belongs.

      This book is about a girl trying to find her place in the world.  Through family struggles and friend drama, she loves her parents and her friends. When her dad gets a new girlfriend she is not happy, and is not open arms to this new addition in the family.  Doris really gets a feel for what a typical mother is like. When she spends more time with her dads girlfriend. I did not like the characters of the parents and their behavior.  They were selfish, putting career goals and personal desires before the needs of their daughter.  

      Doris, works hard to find her own place in the world, whether it is on the roof with the pigeons. Doris learns to become more confident in herself over the course of the book, just as many teenagers gain confidence as they begin to have more and more independence. 


People who enjoy stories of family and friendship would like If I Could Fly.