Roxanne Henke's Learning to Fly ~ Reviewed

Learning to Fly
By Roxanne Henke
Published by Harvest House
ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-1702-5
Back Cover:

Just when, exactly, do you become a "mom"?

That's what new mother Susan Shaffer wonders when her daughter, Lily, is born.

A chance meeting with high school acquaintance JoJo, also a new mom, gives Susan and her daughter friends to learn and grow with.

The two women, along with their husbands, parent their girls, Lily and Tiffany, through the stubborn toddler years, the growing years of grade school, the dramatics of junior high, and the challenges of the high school years. Finally, as the girls approach graduation, all four of those women face the inevitable questions:

Are Lily and Tiffany ready for life on their own? Are the mothers ready to let their girls go?

Have they indeed learned to fly?

Review:

If you're a new mom, about to be a mom, or a grandmother, you'll love Learning to Fly. Roxanne Henke depicts the new-mother-angst with perceptive clarity and insight.

These two new moms are so opposite, it's amazing they became friends—and yet how true to life that they did. It's a completely believable friendship. I don't like to give away a plot within my review, so let me just say that I related to one of these mothers when the other's kid acted up so much, the adults couldn't carry on a conversation. I've been there. We all have at one time or another.

I liked how Henke didn't try to "fix" everyone in the book. Some people just don't get it. The kids' characters were as rich and deep as the adults, and from their toddler years to graduation, they remained believable.

Learning to Fly is truly a parenting manual within the covers of a novel. And I laughed and I cried between those covers. The story will touch you and not leave you unchanged. Novel Reviews and I give it our highest recommendation.

Reviewed by Ane Mulligan