Publishers Weekly called Blackbird Fly โa true triumph,โ and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said, โApple soars like the eponymous blackbird of her favorite Beatles song.โ
Apple 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 โtoo American.โ When Appleโs friends turn on her 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 Appleโs conflicted emotions to the page in her debut novel about family, friendship, popularity, and going your own way. โA must-read for those kids cringing at their own identities.โโBulletin of the Center for Childrenโs Books.
Erin Entrada Kelly is the author of the Newbery Medalโwinning novels Hello, Universe and The First State of Being, which was also named a finalist for the National Book Award. She received a Newbery Honor for her acclaimed novel We Dream of Space. Erin Entrada Kelly grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware. She teaches in the MFA in writing for children and young adults program at Hamline University. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Short Fiction and the Pushcart Prize. Before becoming a childrenโs author, Erin worked as a journalist and magazine editor and received numerous awards for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press.Erin Entrada Kellyโs debut novel, Blackbird Fly, was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, an ALSC Notable Book, and an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor Book. She is also the author of The Land of Forgotten Girls, winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; You Go First, an Indie Next Pick; Lalani of the Distant Sea, an Indie Next Pick; Those Kids from Fawn Creek, named to numerous best-of-the-year lists; and five popular novels for younger readers, Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, Surely Surely Marisol Rainey, Only Only Marisol Rainey, Your Turn Marisol Rainey, and Felix Powell, Boy Dog, which she also illustrated.