Author
Erin Entrada Kelly
6 books here
Blackbird Fly
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 750L · 2016
A quiet, precise coming-of-age where a deaf girl learns to stop shrinking—not a problem-to-solve story, but a kid learning her own power.
The Last Resort
Middle grade · ages 9–12 · 740L · 2025
Erin Entrada Kelly at her best—ensemble cast with real interiority, working-class family dynamics that feel lived-in, and the kind of ending that doesn't wrap everything up but feels genuinely earned.
The Land of Forgotten Girls
Middle grade · ages 9–12 · 780L · 2016
A genuinely moving book about two outsider girls; Kelly's prose is quiet and specific without being maudlin, and the Filipino-American representation feels lived-in rather than performed.
The First State of Being
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 750L · 2024
Kelly's best since *Blackbird Fly*—a spare, emotionally precise story about deaf identity and belonging that never condescends and lets the protagonist be fully, unapologetically herself.
We Dream of Space
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 750L · 2020
A rare middle-grade novel that uses the Challenger disaster as backdrop for genuine interior lives—the three narrators are distinct and complex enough that kids recognize themselves in unexpected places.
Hello, Universe
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · 720L · 2018
A masterclass in the multivoice middle-grade novel—each kid's interior world is specific and dignified, the plot serves character development rather than action, and the resolution trusts readers to feel the weight of apology.