


"A beautifully complex exploration of grief, guilt, and the healing power of art and friendship. Ali, award-winning author of Saints and Misfits With a Hawaiian setting so vividly alive that it becomes essential to Rumi’s healing, this is a gut-wrenching, must-read novel.” -S.K. I got (sobbingly) lost in the rhythms of this beautiful exploration of what it means to grieve when you haven’t figured out who you are or your place in the world. “ Summer Bird Blue brings us the gift of Rumi, unflinchingly honest in herself, her music and the ways she loves and doesn’t. Like my favorite sad songs, this book settled deep into my heart and refused to let go." - Brandy Colbert, author of Little & Lion and Finding Yvonne " Summer Bird Blue is a quiet but powerful exploration of music and love, and their ability to heal grief over time. I was riveted from the first page.” -Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate & Other Filters Akemi Dawn Bowman's writing is lyrical and full of life.

“Achingly beautiful and exquisitely crafted, Summer Bird Blue is an emotionally raw and utterly honest story about loss, about hope, and about finding the courage to sing your own song. The language is extraordinary.” - School Library Journal, starred review “A stunning story filled with the healing power of friendship, family, and music. “A strikingly moving book about teenage grief.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Will leave readers breathless.” - Booklist, starred review With the help of the “boys next door”-a teenage surfer named Kai, who smiles too much and doesn’t take anything seriously, and an eighty-year-old named George Watanabe, who succumbed to his own grief years ago-Rumi attempts to find her way back to her music, to write the song she and Lea never had the chance to finish.Īching, powerful, and unflinchingly honest, Summer Bird Blue explores big truths about insurmountable grief, unconditional love, and how to forgive even when it feels impossible. Now thousands of miles from home, Rumi struggles to navigate the loss of her sister, being abandoned by her mother, and the absence of music in her life. Then Lea dies in a car accident, and her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while she deals with her own grief. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of-she wants to spend the rest of her life writing music with her younger sister, Lea. Rumi Seto spends a lot of time worrying she doesn’t have the answers to everything. Three starred reviews for this stunning novel about a mixed-race teen who struggles to find her way back to her love of music in the wake of her sister’s death, from the author of the William C. “Grabs your heart and won’t let go.” - Book Riot “Gorgeous prose and heartbreaking storytelling.” - Paste Magazine

“A lyrical novel about grief, love, and finding oneself in the wake of a tragic loss.” - Bustle
