January 1, 2022
"I'm so glad it's summer!" exclaims Sunny (Sunny Side Up, rev. 9/15, and sequels) on the last day of school, but that's before friend Deb announces that her family is going to spend the summer at her grandmother's in Wisconsin. And if having a summer birthday isn't bad enough, having one when your best friend isn't around and there's no air conditioning and it's your thirteenth -- things don't look good. But true to this durable heroine's name, happenstance (beloved Gramps blithely arrives from Florida for an extended visit), hard work (Sunny gets a job at the local pool's snack bar), and a hint of romance (for both Sunny and Gramps!) combine to create a memorable, maturing, and very full vacation. As in the previous stories, the 1970s suburban-Pennsylvania setting of this breezy graphic novel is richly conveyed with not a hint of nostalgia. So closely allied are we with Sunny's perspective that we are right there with her the whole time, including every attempt she makes to conquer her fear of the high dive at the pool. Will she succeed? See title. Roger Sutton

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from August 1, 2021
Deep waters literal and otherwise beckon as another summer brings another birthday--the big 13th!--a first real job, and more growing up for Sunny. The prospect of a crushingly boring summer of 1978 turns brighter with Sunny's discovery that classmate Tony is in charge of the local country club's poolside snack bar. Though the high diving board defeats her, her willingness to lend a hand during a sudden rush at the stand leads to a job offer--and a front-row seat for summer flirtations and other instructional events in and around the pool. Meanwhile, shared experiences turn what begins as a nodding acquaintance between the two middle schoolers into something closer as summer wears on. Drenching their episodic tale in 1970s detail (Rocket Pops, The Muppet Show, Ben-Gay ointment, Starsky and Hutch!), the Holms and colorist Pien construct a fluent narrative that runs invisibly but irresistibly beneath sparse but natural-sounding dialogue and equally economical but wonderfully expressive cartoon panels astir with significant looks, gestures, and reaction shots. Sunny does nerve herself at summer's end to tackle the high board, and though a final scene of she and Tony standing together in the school hallway is wordless, their postures alone convey a world of meaning. With exceptions established in previous episodes, Sunny and most of her circle are White, but group scenes include racial diversity. A buoyant summer idyll with a few mild downs but far more ups. (Graphic historical fiction. 10-13)

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January 1, 2022
Color by Lark Pien. "I'm so glad it's summer!?" exclaims Sunny (Sunny Side Up, rev. 9/15, and sequels) on the last day of school, but that's before friend Deb announces that her family is going to spend the summer at her grandmother's in Wisconsin. And if having a summer birthday isn't bad enough, having one when your best friend isn't around and there's no air conditioning and it's your thirteenth -- things don't look good. But true to this durable heroine's name, happenstance (beloved Gramps blithely arrives from Florida for an extended visit), hard work (Sunny gets a job at the local pool's snack bar), and a hint of romance (for both Sunny and Gramps!) combine to create a memorable, maturing, and very full vacation. As in the previous stories, the 1970s suburban-Pennsylvania setting of this breezy graphic novel is richly conveyed with not a hint of nostalgia. So closely allied are we with Sunny's perspective that we are right there with her the whole time, including every attempt she makes to conquer her fear of the high dive at the pool. Will she succeed? See title.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)