Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly features 12 year-old Apple who lives with her single mother in Louisiana. They moved to the United States from the Phillipines when she was four once her father died. She has always felt different from her friends and this year there are lots of changes. Friendships are changing and in chapter one, Apple finds out she is featured on the school’s “dog list” of girls. Her two best friends do not stick by her and Apple must look elsewhere for people she can trust. The only memento she has from her dead father is a Beatles cassette tape. Apple finds comfort and connection by listening to the music and feels a pull to learn guitar. A series of incidents lead her to be wrongly accused of stealing. Along the way she forges stronger bonds with a new student, Evan, as she is rejected by the mean girls, her former friends. Her dream of learning to play guitar, avoid the school bullies, and make sense of her identity are sympathetically described. A realistic portrayal of a middle-school girl figuring where she fits in.
