Published in 2025, All the Blues in the Sky is a young adult novel in verse and prose by acclaimed author Renée Watson. The narrative follows 13-year-old Sage, whose life is upended when her best friend, Angel, is killed in a hit-and-run accident on Sage’s birthday. Overwhelmed by sorrow, Sage joins a school grief support group, where she meets other girls processing their own losses. As she navigates this new landscape of pain, she must learn to articulate her feelings, accept support, and find a way to live with her loss. The novel explores themes of The Nonlinear Nature of Grief, Coping With Survivor’s Guilt, and Finding Community After Loss.

Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author celebrated for her authentic portrayals of Black girlhood. Her previous young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (2017), won a Coretta Scott King Author Award and a Newbery Honor, and she received another Coretta Scott King Author Award for Love Is a Revolution (2021). Like her other works, All the Blues in the Sky engages with complex emotional subjects and has received early critical acclaim. Watson’s Author’s Note explains that the novel was inspired by the collective and personal grief experienced during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to give readers permission to feel difficult emotions while still finding joy.

This guide refers to the 2025 Bloomsbury Children’s Books edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child death, graphic violence, substance use, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Thirteen-year-old Sage is consumed by grief and guilt following the death of her best friend, Angel Rodriguez. Angel was killed in a hit-and-run by a drunk driver on the very day Sage turned 13, a tragedy Sage secretly believes is her fault. To cope, she attends a grief group led by her school counselor, Ms. Carver, where she meets four other grieving girls. Sage feels a close connection to Ebony, whose father died suddenly from a heart attack, and DD, whose brother, Nathan, was murdered by police. She believes they understand the shock of a sudden loss in a way that Ana, whose twin died of leukemia, and Zay, whose grandmother died while in hospice, cannot. Because Ana and Zay had time to say goodbye, Sage privately resents them and often tunes them out when they share their experiences.

Outside the group, Sage remains isolated and consumed by memories of Angel. She rejects Ebony’s invitations, struggles to return to familiar places, and becomes frightened of cars and street crossings. She thinks about the future she and Angel once imagined, including Sage’s dream of becoming a pilot and Angel’s plan to become a coder. At home, Sage lives with her father since her parents’ divorce, and to fill the silence left by her college-aged brother, Spencer, she begins a new Friday night tradition of watching basketball and eating pizza with her dad. At night, however, she is plagued by nightmares of the accident and fills a journal with her unanswerable questions, tormented by the memory of the angry texts she sent Angel for being late, unaware that her friend was dying.

Sage’s great-aunt, Ini, who is more like a grandmother to her, encourages her to begin participating in life again. During a trip to Chelsea Market, Aunt Ini confides that she still misses her own sister every day after 40 years, teaching Sage that love creates a grief that endures but can also become a source of comfort. Sage gradually begins spending more time with Ebony and DD, and the three visit Morningside Park, where Sage reconnects with a boy named Kofi. She also attends a memorial for DD’s brother, which focuses on celebrating his life. On the walk home, Sage’s father and Ebony help her walk past the intersection where Angel was killed, which she has avoided since the accident. Later, Sage’s mother takes her, Ebony, and DD on a trip to Times Square, where hearing Angel’s favorite song unexpectedly makes Sage smile.

During a grief session about guilt, Sage finally confesses the full story of Angel’s last day. She admits she selfishly insisted that Angel come directly to her house for a private slumber party, refusing to let her friend first attend a skate party with her new friends from coding class. Sage is convinced that if she had been less demanding, Angel would not have been on that street at that exact time. She also tearfully reveals the angry texts she sent while she waited, unaware of the accident. The group responds to Sage’s confession with compassion rather than judgment. Soon afterward, Sage tells Kofi about Angel. Because he never knew her, his questions encourage Sage to describe Angel’s personality and their friendship rather than focus solely on her death.

Sage’s progress remains uneven. During another grief group meeting, she lashes out at Ana and Zay, insisting that their anticipated losses cannot compare with the sudden deaths experienced by Ebony, DD, and herself. She storms out of the session and goes to Angel’s locker for comfort, only to find it has been completely emptied. The sight of the vacant space triggers a public breakdown, and Sage screams, kicks lockers, and yells at Ms. Carver before ripping down the grief group flyer and running from the school. Afterward, her parents insist that she take responsibility for her behavior, while Ebony and DD help her understand that she can apologize for how she acted without denying the validity of her feelings. Aunt Ini similarly challenges Sage to recognize that different forms of grief can still be equally painful.

At the same time, Sage begins a youth aviation program called Fly Girl, reconnecting with the dream of becoming a pilot that she has had since childhood. Lessons about flight, uncertainty, and turbulence give her new ways to think about questions that do not have simple answers. Sage also grows closer to Kofi, who asks her to be his girlfriend, and their first kiss helps her recognize that happiness can coexist with sadness. Sage eventually returns to the grief group and sincerely apologizes to Ana, Zay, and the others. She begins to understand that their losses do not have to be identical for them to support one another.

Another turning point in Sage’s healing arrives when Angel’s older sister, Brielle, brings Sage a birthday letter that Angel was carrying when she died. In it, Angel lists 13 things she loves about Sage, offering reassurance of their bond. Brielle then invites Sage to their home, where Sage goes through Angel’s keepsake box. Seeing ticket stubs, photos, and her half of their friendship necklace, Sage finally accepts that Angel knew she was loved, releasing her from the guilt of not having a final goodbye.

Feeling a sense of peace, Sage completes a memorial sign for Angel, filling it with repetitions of Angel’s name to serve as proof she existed. She places it at the crash site, now able to honor her friend without being consumed by pain. She internalizes a lesson from her math teacher, Mr. Dixon, about transversal lines, seeing her grief group as a transversal event that intersected their different, parallel lives and connected them forever.

Near the novel’s conclusion, Sage faces another impending loss when Aunt Ini takes her to the Harlem Meer and reveals that she has untreatable cancer and is dying. Sage is devastated, but her response shows how much her understanding of grief has changed. Rather than focusing only on the coming absence, she begins considering how she can carry Aunt Ini’s wisdom with her and live a life that would make her proud. As they continue walking, Aunt Ini discovers that the tulips she has eagerly awaited have finally bloomed. Their arrival leads Sage to reflect on the temporary nature of individual lives and the continuing possibility of renewal.

The novel ends with Sage reconsidering what adults should teach children about death. She decides that she would be honest about the sadness and terrible losses life can contain with her own children, while also teaching them about the happiness and love that exist alongside them. Sage has not overcome grief or stopped missing Angel; instead, she has learned to continue while making room for grief, love, memory, and joy.