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4.5 Stars

This story about grief was very very good. All the Blues in the Sky is a short (2 hour audiobook) but impactful book about Sage, who lost her best friend on her (Sage's) 13th birthday to a horrific hit and run. Renée Watson touches on all of the elements of grief, from never saying her best friend's name (spoiler?) until the end, making it that much more powerful when she does, to those moments of rage-filled grief exploding out publicly and privately. I wasn't surprised at all when I listened to the author's note and that Renée Watson lost many loved ones in a short time period, because you can feel how authentic and real this is. A substory is the police brutality that affects Sage's community (they have a memorial for the one year anniversary of her friend's brother being murdered for reaching for his inhaler when he was pulled over for expired tags).

I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Bahni Turpin. If you listen to a lot of middle grade and YA audiobooks, particularly featuring black narrators, you will have listened to Bahni Turpin A LOT, and every time, I'm struck by how young her voice sounds. I kept thinking the character was 9 or 10 years old so when she (spoiler?) kisses a boy I was like whaaaaat? Then she reminds us that she's 13 years old. I would say that it's a middle school book for upper middle grade or younger YA audiences. It's definitely really sad, so it's not for every kid or every life situation, but it's a great book to have for teachers, youth workers etc. to know about and recommend.

Ages 11-13