NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY • KIRKUS REVIEWS The spectacular debut novel from the Newbery Award winning author of When You Trap a Tiger. This is an uplifting story about friendship, family, and the complicated science of the heart.When Natalie’s science teacher suggests that she enter an egg drop competition, she thinks it could be the perfect solution to all of her problems. With the prize money, she can fly her botanist mother to see the miraculous Cobalt Blue Orchids--flowers with the resilience to survive against impossible odds. Her mother has been suffering from depression, and Natalie is positive that the flowers’ magic will inspire her mom to fall in love with life again.
But she can’t do it alone. Her friends step up to show her that talking about problems is like taking a plant out of a dark cupboard and exposing it to the sun. With their help, Natalie begins an unforgettable journey to discover the science of hope, love, and miracles.
TAE KELLER was born and raised in Honolulu, where she grew up on purple rice, Spam musubi, and her halmoni’s tiger stories. She is the Newbery Medal-winning author of
When You Trap a Tiger and
The Science of Breakable Things. She lives in Seattle. Visit her at TaeKeller.com, follow her monthly love letters at bit.ly/lovetae, and find her on Twitter and Instagram.
An NPR Great Read of the YearA Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the YearA Booklist Reader Best Book of the MonthA Brightly Best Children's and YA Books of March 2018 “Natalie is an engaging narrator whose struggles at home and with her peers ring true.” —Deborah Hopkinson, award-winning author
“Inspiring, emotional, and heartwarming.” —Melissa Savage, author of
Lemons“A compassionate glimpse of mental illness accessible to a broad audience.” —
Kirkus Reviews, starred
"Beautifully crafted metaphors, a theme of mending old friendships and creating new ones, and an empowering teacher to a variety of readers. . . . A winning story full of heart and action.” —
Booklist, starred
“Natalie’s Korean heritage is sensitively explored, as is the central issue of depression.” —
Publishers Weekly“Natalie learns that, as with the egg, people, too, are fragile and need support and padding to break their falls. An emotional story that explores parental depression with realism and empathy.” —
School Library Journal"A sweet and hope-filled story.” —
Brightly"Holy moly!!! This book made me feel." —Colby Sharp, editor of
The Creativity Project
