We Never Asked for Wings

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children -- Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, six -- in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty's parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she's worked for and her family's fragile hopes for the future.

• ISBN10: 055339231X
• ISBN13: 9780553392319
• Publish Date: 18 August 2015 (first published 1 August 2015)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 20 April 2017
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ballantine Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one because I loved her first book, Language of Flowers, so much but it quickly grabbed me. I love a story of redemption, of underdogs and this story had that. Glad I finally decided to read it.

[phyllish]

I didn't especially care for this book. There were aspects of it that were good, the way Alex cared so deeply for Yesenia and for his sister Luna, but I didn't like his mom at all.

I had a problem with a number of things in the book.

1. Alex's mom got him drunk. Really? Encouraged it because she wanted to have him help her develop new flavors of mixed drinks for the bar where she worked. Hmm.
2. Alex and Yesenia both were committed to not having sex until marriage, but they didn't have any qualms about engaging in sexual behavior - as long as it wouldn't result in pregnancy. It was presented in such a way that this was considered acceptable and normal
3. I had a real problem with the situation at the school. While I can believe that they would have had security cameras, I have a really hard time believing that they would have set up computer security in such a way that a teacher had rights to enroll a student. And that they would have been able to figure out that is what Alex had broken into the school to do on the computer. That whole situation was very unbelievable.
4. Alex's mom used foul language a few times.