Community, friendship and A Girl on the Fly

Author Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl introduces Girl on the Fly and tells us how her own dual heritage, her love of running and close friendships, helped inspire the her to write Girl on the Fly.  

Nansubuga told ReadingZone, "Girl on the Fly is a celebratory story set in Philadelphia in 1992. It's about Kamaria Kessy, a 13-year-old Tanzanian-American girl, who is passionate about running track, her friends, and her family. What she is not passionate about is change.

"Yet, at the end of the school year, she finds herself in an abrupt period of chaos. To start, she's anxious to win the state championship with her relay team before one of her friends moves away. She also feels unsettled by a conflict with her best friend, Odie. And when she learns that an aunt she's never met before is arriving from Tanzania in just a few days and she'll be forced to share her room, she feels completely overwhelmed.

"Amidst so much change, Kam is scrambling to find her footing and has to figure out how to adjust to a new presence in the house, patch things up with her best friend, and find her own rhythm on and off the track."

Read a Chapter from Girl on the Fly

Find out more in our Q&A with Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl