Future rock star or friendless misfit? That’s no choice at all. In Blackbird Fly, an acclaimed coming-of-age novel by Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, twelve-year-old Apple grapples with being different; with friends and backstabbers; and with following her dreams.

Publishers Weekly called Blackbird Fly “a true triumph,” and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said, “Apple soars like the eponymous blackbird of her favorite Beatles song.”

Apple, a young Filipino American, has always felt a little different from her classmates. She and her mother moved to Louisiana from the Philippines when she was little, and her mother still cooks Filipino foods and chastises Apple for becoming “too American.” When Apple’s friends turn on her, making her a target of bullying, and everything about her life starts to seem weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music. If she can just save enough to buy a guitar and learn to play, maybe she can change herself. It might be the music that saves her . . . or it might be her two new friends, who show her how special she really is.

Erin Entrada Kelly deftly brings Apple’s conflicted emotions to the page in her debut novel about family, friendship drama, popularity, and finding your voice. “A must-read for those kids cringing at their own identities.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

What happens when the music you love becomes your only way to be heard?

Cultural Identity: Caught between her mom’s Filipino cooking and her own desire to be “American,” Apple struggles to find where she belongs.
Middle School Bullying: When a cruel list of the “ugliest girls” makes her a target, Apple must navigate a new level of middle school cruelty.
The Power of Music: Obsessed with the Beatles, Apple believes that saving up for her first guitar is the only way to escape her reality and become the rock star she dreams of being.
Friendship and Forgiveness: After her best friends turn their backs on her, Apple has to decide who to trust and discovers that real friends might be waiting where she least expects them.