ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY

ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY by Renee Watson

2026 Winner of the Newbery Medal

I'm going to step out on a limb here and say this would not have been my pick for the Newbery Medal. I have struggled a bit back and forth with what I'm going to say, but this book is very heavy with grief and loss, and in a world that constantly seems heavy, I would have preferred a breath of fresh air for the Newbery Medal. There is a definite place for this book, and that maybe would have included a Newbery Honor instead.

All the Blues in the Sky starts off with the statement, " I didn't know best friends could die." It's Sage's 13th birthday, and her best friend is hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street. The book tells the story of Sage's journey as she navigates all of her grief: the guilt she feels, all of the things she and her best friend would have been doing, but the biggest part focuses on the grief group she attends and the relationships she builds there. The grief group is made up of 5 girls: Sage, Ebony whose father died unexpectedly from a heart attack, Zay whose grandmother died peacefully in her sleep after being in hospice, Ana whose twin sister passed away from leukemia, and DD's brother who was "murdered by the police." (There are some pages dedicated to this topic.)

SPOILER ALERT It takes a lot of time understandably to work through all of the grief, but by the end of the book, Sage begins to realize that she has formed friendships with a couple of the girls from the grief group and that it's okay. They're new and different and won't replace her friendship that she lost. Just when it feels like things are starting to move forward, Sage learns that her beloved aunt has incurable cancer. The ultimate lesson that Sage learns is that if she lives (because death can be very unexpected and can happen often) and has children someday, she will teach them it's okay to cry, to love deeply, and to "feel it all."