Graphic Novel Review: Sunny Side Up #gncelebration

This month I'm participating in a celebration of graphic novels.

My students love graphic novels, and I always feel like I should be reading more, so I can recommend more.

This month long celebration will help me do just that!

The month is being hosted by:

Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading

Alyson Beecher of KidLit Frenzy

Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan of Assessment in Perspective

Each Thursday I post a review of a graphic novel.

Today it's:

Sunny Side Up 

by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

Sunny Lewin has been packed off to Florida to live with her grandfather for the summer.  At first she thought Florida might be fun -- it is the home of Disney World, after all.  But the place where Gramps lives is no amusement park.  It’s full of . . . old people.  Really old people.
 
Luckily, Sunny isn’t the only kid around.  She meets Buzz, a boy who is completely obsessed with comic books, and soon they’re having adventures of their own: facing off against golfball-eating alligators, runaway cats, and mysteriously disappearing neighbors.  But the question remains -- why is Sunny down in Florida in the first place?  The answer lies in a family secret that won’t be secret to Sunny much longer. . .

I found this to be a very cute yet touching book.  At first it comes across as just a cute simple story about a young girl spending the summer with her grandfather in 55+ senior housing.  You can feel her pain when she realizes she'll be spending the summer with people much older than her! I think back to myself at her age and I would've hated it too! As the story progresses slowly it's revealed that things at Sunny's home were not so good - that something happened with her older brother.  At the same time you see she doesn't want to share with anyone what has happened.  That made me really feel for her because you know she must be hurting if she doesn't want to talk about it.  As she makes friends with Buzz, she settles in more, but you can still tell she's on edge or bothered by what happened at home.  And slowly you get the whole story about her brother.  What Sunny learns is that if you try to stuff down your feelings they have a way of coming out!

In the end it turned out being a cute story that reminds us and tells kids that you need to talk about things that are bothering you.  Otherwise they'll fester. And that does no one any good.