Review Detail

Blackbird Fly

Middle Grade Fiction 266

Filipino Culture

January 04, 2016 (Updated: June 30, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Apple (aka Analyn) rails against her mother's insistence at embracing their Filipino culture in embarrassing ways like insisting on calling her Apple. Apple's father has passed away and she doesn't have much information about him, only that he loved the Beatles. Apple is having a horrific year at school because she has been listed as number three on the "dog log", a list of ugly girls in her school. Her friends Alyssa and Gretchen are appalled that she is on the list and really want to cut ties with her, so she's glad that a new boy, Evan, seems to appreciate her for who she is. Apple really wants to buy a guitar in order to feel a connection with her late father, and thinks about stealing money from a teacher. She puts the money back, and the teacher offers to loan her a school guitar and teach her how to play. There are a variety of other school dramas, including a costume dance, and Apple learns to embrace her culture and starts to see her own worth after making friends who also have some social problems.

Good Points

This had good descriptions of cultural aspects of the Philippines that are very rare in middle grade fiction. Food, cultural expectations, the role of family-- these are always things that readers find fascinating.

Apple is a likable character who is trying her best to work through difficult situations, and Evan is the kind of student we wish all of ours would be-- he sticks up for Apple even when he doesn't know her well. There are a few students who are still interested in the Beatles, and they will be thrilled to see them referenced in a novel.

Readers who are struggling with disenfranchisement in middle school will relate to Apple's position as a social outsider, and cheer on the forces that make sure boys who came up with the "dog log" will be soundly punished. If you enjoyed books like Dowd's The Kind of Friends We Used to Be, McVoy's Drive Me Crazy and other friend dramas, Blackbird Fly is a great book with cultural context to pick up.