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A review by bethpeninger
We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.
To say I am a fan of Vanessa Diffenbaugh would be an understatement. I am a huge fan. Her first book, The Language of Flowers, was wonderful (which is a massive understatement) so I was eager to read her second title - We Never Asked for Wings. I was not disappointed.
We Never Asked for Wings follows the path of Alex, Luna, and Letty - a family trying to figure out how to be a family and make it. Letty is mother to Alex and Luna but she didn't raise them, her mother did. But circumstances have changed and Letty now needs to either step up to the plate or go have a seat on the bench. Can she be a mother? Should she be a mother? Alex is smart, just like the father he's never met. Throughout his 15 years his grandfather has been teaching him about birds - their flight patterns, their migration, their feathers. Encouraged by his grandfather to find his own wings Alex, with the help of Letty, sets out to sprout the wings that will take him the places he wants to go. But Alex and his strong sense of loyalty and responsibility won't let those wings take him too far from the people he loves and cares for. Getting wings, it turns out, can be rather painful.
This is a well-written coming of age story for not just one character but two. Letty and Alex both go through the growing pains of growing up at the same time. As Diffenbaugh did in her first title, she made all the connections needed to flesh out the story and have it all make sense. She took a subject matter and infused it with the life of someone's story. She developed her characters around the core of the subject matter and the analogy of it and created a beautiful story. She explores some topics that need a closer look and I appreciated that as well. Looking forward to her third book, she's on a roll!
To say I am a fan of Vanessa Diffenbaugh would be an understatement. I am a huge fan. Her first book, The Language of Flowers, was wonderful (which is a massive understatement) so I was eager to read her second title - We Never Asked for Wings. I was not disappointed.
We Never Asked for Wings follows the path of Alex, Luna, and Letty - a family trying to figure out how to be a family and make it. Letty is mother to Alex and Luna but she didn't raise them, her mother did. But circumstances have changed and Letty now needs to either step up to the plate or go have a seat on the bench. Can she be a mother? Should she be a mother? Alex is smart, just like the father he's never met. Throughout his 15 years his grandfather has been teaching him about birds - their flight patterns, their migration, their feathers. Encouraged by his grandfather to find his own wings Alex, with the help of Letty, sets out to sprout the wings that will take him the places he wants to go. But Alex and his strong sense of loyalty and responsibility won't let those wings take him too far from the people he loves and cares for. Getting wings, it turns out, can be rather painful.
This is a well-written coming of age story for not just one character but two. Letty and Alex both go through the growing pains of growing up at the same time. As Diffenbaugh did in her first title, she made all the connections needed to flesh out the story and have it all make sense. She took a subject matter and infused it with the life of someone's story. She developed her characters around the core of the subject matter and the analogy of it and created a beautiful story. She explores some topics that need a closer look and I appreciated that as well. Looking forward to her third book, she's on a roll!