Kara LaReau

Kara LaReau gives children’s adventure a dry comic voice, playful word choices, and resourceful young characters. Flight of the Bluebird completes The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters, a trilogy illustrated by Jen Hill. Published by Amulet Books in 2019, the novel returns to sisters Jaundice and Kale after surviving the Uncanny Valley. Aviator Beatrix Airdale carries them toward Egypt, where a magical scarab, their mother’s archaeology notebook, and the mystery of their parents’ identities draw the series together. LaReau previously worked as an editor at Candlewick before becoming a full-time author, experience that complements her work across picture books and chapter-book series. Flight of the Bluebird is aimed at middle-grade readers and closes the sisters’ story with travel, family discovery, and deliberately understated comedy. Hill’s black-and-white illustrations remain part of the book’s storytelling, supporting the trilogy’s mock-serious tone and its playful echoes of classic mystery and adventure fiction.