This book would be good for middle school students. This book is "Blackbird Fly" written by Erin Entrada Kelly and published in 2015. This book is about a young girl named Apple and she is at a new school and she looks and acts very different than all of her classmates. She gets bullied and outcasted by her classmates and has to navigate her way through the tough challenges of middle school. She eventually finds out that she does not have to form to societies standards and finds her way through her music and her great friends she finds along the way. I think this book would be good for middle schoolers to relate to. Everyone in middle school is trying to fin their place in the world and even if you can't directly relate to this book, they can at least relate to feeling like an outcast in society. I would definitely have this in my fourth, fifth, or middle school classroom.

I was a little nervous to read this because the premise sounded thoroughly depressing. From the first page, Apple's voice erased my worries, and I loved her story completely. Great, realistic characters that perfectly captured how difficult it can be for middle schoolers to see how beautiful they are. Cheesy, but true. :) Also, I love how music plays a huge role in the story and helps the kids through, like it does for so many kids and adults.

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Great power-though, it won't always be middle school, kind of book. The specific sorts of bullying were hard for me (dog log, hot lot lists), but watching Apple find her way was great. Hopeful at the end. Filipino immigrant family, single mom, main character in 6th grade, all about the Beatles, man. I appreciate that Apple starts on the bullying/silent witness side, so that she can recognize the behavior in herself, as well as respond when it's turned against her.
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children's fiction. middle-grade novel (Apple is in 6th grade): school outcast because of perceived ethnicity, friends turning against each other because of middle school pressures/struggle for popularity, bullying, self-acceptance and perseverence. Incidentally, Apple is also part of a single parent family (dead dad; mom won't talk about it). She also loves the Beatles and teaches herself to play the guitar (despite not owning one). The first part of the book was middle school kids being horrible to each other; the second half (in which Apple starts actually sticking up for folks) is better--easily read in one sitting. ( )

Analyn "Apple" Yengko moved from the Philippines to Louisiana when she was four, but she still doesn't feel like she fits in - and now she's #3 in the "Dog Log," a list of girls that boys declare ugly. Landing on the list causes her "friends" Alyssa and Gretchen to pull away from her; luckily, after a fumbling start, Apple makes friends with a new boy from California, Evan, and the two of them eventually befriend #1 on the Dog Log, Heleena. The new trio bond over their shared interest in music (and their un-shared interest in building model airplanes); Apple finally gets the guitar her mother has denied her when the music teacher lends her one to practice on, and Heleena sings along to "Here Comes the Sun" in an impromptu lunchtime concert. With the acceptance of true friends, and a revelation about her mother, Apple decides not to use the class field trip to New Orleans as an opportunity to run away after all.

Quotes

...my mother and I are like a merry-go-round when it comes to conversations. We've run out of new things to talk about, so instead we talk about the same things over and over... (5)

Sometimes it feels like music is the only thing that saves me... (60)

Lots of people in history have left their lives behind to follow their dreams. (66)

My house felt completely different with Evan here, like I was sharing a secret I wasn't ready to tell. (119)

"It is never too late to offer something good." (Apple's mom, a saying from the Philippines, 145)

My mom likes to end conversations with a chore and a criticism. (179)

I knew that smile. It was the kind of smile that wants to run away from your face. (252)

[Alyssa] tried to say more, but the crowd swallowed her up, and she disappeared into it. I realized that's how she would always be: going where the crowd goes and then getting lost. (285) ( )