If I Could Fly
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If I Could Fly is a standalone novel based on characters introduced in Judith Ortiz Cofer's bestselling short story collection, An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio, which won the inaugural Pura Belpré Award. Fifteen-year-old Doris is used to taking care of herself. Her musician parents have always spent more time singing in nightclubs than watching after her. But when her ailing mother goes home to Puerto Rico to get well and pursue a singing career there, and her father finds a new girlfriend, Doris is more alone than she's ever been. Disconnected from her family and her best friends, who are intertwined in terrifying relationships with a violent classmate, Doris finds refuge in taking care of homing pigeons on her apartment building's roof. As Doris tries to make sense of it all, she learns that, just like the pigeons, she might have to fly far distances before she finds out where she belongs.
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Judith Ortiz Cofer was a critically acclaimed and widely published poet, novelist, and essayist who knew that "words have the power to transform you and give you the power to shape your life. The minute you open your mouth, you have introduced yourself." She wrote extensively about the experience of being Puerto Rican and her identity as a woman and writer in the U.S. She was the lauded Regents and Franklin Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia where she taught literature and creative writing. Learn more about her life and works at http: //judithortizcofer.english.uga.edu.
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