• Age: 11 to 13
• Grade: 6 to 8
• Reading age: 9 to 12

“Blue to the Sky is a fabulous book that fills a niche of families and children living with severe allergies. … Highly Recommended.” — Canadian Review of Materials

The journey to conquering your fears starts with 1,776 steps.

Starting sixth grade after years of homeschooling, Ella is tired of being known as Allergic-to-Everything Girl. She just wants to eat pizza without breaking into hives, convince her mom to adopt a Whoodle dog, and get over her stage fright so she can perform her poem to her class.

When her best friend signs up for a CN Tower climb for charity, Ella knows she has to join. If she can climb to the top and summon the courage to recite her poem over the city, she’s convinced she’ll finally be cured of her fears.

Sylvia McNicoll wrote her first book, Blueberries and Whipped Cream, as a project for a college writing course in order to explore a tragedy that occurred in her own high school. She went on to teach creative writing at that same college for nine years, edit a parenting magazine for another eight years and write 29 more novels for a variety of age groups.
Most acclaimed are her three dog guide fostering stories: Bringing Up Beauty, Beauty Returns and A Different Kind of Beauty, which won and were nominated for many children's choice awards. Last Chance for Paris, her adventure book set on the ice fields of Columbia, explored ecological issues with glaciers before climate warming became a popular issue.
Her recent novel, Crush. Candy. Corpse, tells the story about a teen on trial for the manslaughter of an Alzheimer's patient. Reviewers and bloggers have declared it a must read for all high school students. In her thirtieth book Death Goes Viral, already a blockbuster hit in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Sylvia returns to the theme of life and death and the values our own mortality inspires in us.

Sylvia McNicoll's profile page

“Sylvia McNicoll’s heart-warming novel is an empathetic look into the strength and courage it takes for children with multiple life-threatening allergies to wake up and face the challenge of everyday living. Blue to the Sky is an important and entertaining book.”

Christina Kilbourne, award-winning author of <em>40 Days in Hicksville</em>

“I've been waiting SUCH a long time for a book like this! As a mom of a child with a milk allergy, I've been so disappointed in the lack of food allergy representation in middle-grade books. This book does an excellent job of looking at the wide range of emotions that a child with allergies might feel and educates readers while also entertaining them. I HIGHLY recommend adding this book to middle-grade collections.”

Kathie MacIsaac, co-author of <i>If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It</i>

“Sylvia’s writing made it seamless to fall into Ella’s world and gain a better understanding of how these allergies can limit a person’s ability to easily exist in a world built for able bodies. We really don’t have a lot of quality reads that feature disability in the children’s lit space and it is wonderful to now have another story for readers to feel seen and heard.”

Storytime with Stephanie

“Sylvia McNicoll brings Ella’s voice to life through this lovely story of resilience. The synopsis hardly does justice to the layers that McNicoll brings to Blue to the Sky, a reference to the poem that kids are taught about EpiPens. … This novel is a wonderful way for kids like Ella to feel seen and for others to build empathy for the lived experiences of those around them.”

Canadian Children’s Book News

“Blue to the Sky is a fabulous book that fills a niche of families and children living with severe allergies. It gives readers a glimpse of living life with severe allergies. As McNicoll mentions in the ‘Acknowledgments,’ the book is a work of love. She has watched her own children and grandchildren navigate the world of living with allergies, and she shares this beautiful story with readers.”

Canadian Review of Materials

“A sensitive portrayal of living with multiple allergies and of growing into oneself.”

Kirkus Reviews