Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott

Imperfect Birds is the third book in the "Rosie" series and one I appreciated for its tension. Rosie and her parents are having two very different experiences for most of the book and it's not clear who is right and who is wrong. Rosie is a good kid, but she's also making some dangerous choices. Elizabeth and James love her and want her to thrive, but their efforts sometimes miss the mark. I admired how we were kept in the middle; there was no clear winner in all their conflicts. Sometimes Rosie is right, sometimes her parents are right, and that push and pull is what being a teenager, and raising a teenager, is about in so many ways. 

It's because I loved that the reader gets to see the best and worst of each character that I had a strong aversion to the ending. I think the ending suggests someone was right and someone was wrong and I disagree. Imperfect Birds is where we see Rosie most grown up, Elizabeth and James most a team; I wanted to end our time together remembering them both for their best qualities. Instead of that delicate balance that was present for most of the book, there was some plot-driven editorializing at the end which seemed intended to sway the reader to one side. Too bad because Imperfect Birds was otherwise a perfect picture of a teenager figuring things out. 

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