Diana Abu-Jaber - Birds of Paradise

7. How does a child’s growing up and leaving home affect his or her parents? And what if they face an extreme case of this departure, as with a runaway or a child who chooses to leave home too soon?

8. What do you think is the significance of the novel’s focus on food, in terms of both Felice’s baking and Stanley’s organic market? Is it just representative of today’s foodie obsessions, or is there a deeper meaning?

9. How do you feel about the fact that at least one other street kid in Felice’s crowd comes from a wealthy background? Are these kids just misguided rebels, or did you feel they must have had real reasons for choosing to live on the streets?

10. How does the author’s fascination with Miami come through in the novel? How might the novel have been different if it took place somewhere else?

11. How did you feel about the fact that the real-estate scam was revealed right before Brian invested his money? Why do you think the author gave him a second chance? What does his particular situation say about the real-estate landscape in general?

12. Is there a dark side to America’s reputation as paradise?

13. What do you make of Avis’s friendship with her Haitian neighbor? Are their situations similar or impossible to compare?

14. In what ways does the novel show us how we might be creative? Think of how characters like Avis, Emerson, and Stanley demonstrate creativity in their own ways.

15. Does Felice “grow up” by the end of the novel? What does it mean to grow up, and is one ever finished doing so?

16. Does Felice’s family really come together at the end? Or does it seem as though Felice is just continuing to run away from her problems?