Blackbird Fly, Erin Entrada Kelly
Blackbird Fly, Erin Entrada Kelly
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
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Blackbird Fly

Author: Erin Entrada Kelly

Narrator: Ferdelle Capistrano

Unabridged: 5 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/09/2021


Synopsis

Future rock star or friendless misfit? That’s no choice at all. In this acclaimed 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 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 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, popularity, and going your own way. “A must-read for those kids cringing at their own identities.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

About Erin Entrada Kelly

Erin Entrada Kelly is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning 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 children’s 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 Kelly’s 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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jillian on September 10, 2016

i fucking loved this. it's an adorable, uplifting coming age of story. and i found myself bursting into tears from time to time because the main character is a filipino girl. to finally read from the pov of someone who is like me who i can relate to 10000% on so many levels. this was a book i needed......more

Goodreads review by Gail on November 27, 2014

Ah, this book! I love a good, realistic, no-holds-barred MG, and this is definitely one. The main character, Apple, struggles to fit in with her "friends" at school, and some of these scenes are so very real that they're almost hard to read. Such a great, diverse book! Highly recommended.......more

Goodreads review by Josiah on March 17, 2023

Debut novels are special, particularly for authors who went on to become famous. What was that first published effort like from a storyteller who eventually set the world on fire with her writing? What does a lifetime of pent-up creativity look like when it finally spills onto the page for the world......more