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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Meet … Sunshine Simpson
Sunshine’s larger-than-life Grandad is always telling her to get out and find her own adventures, but unfortunately BAD LUCK has a habit of coming her way.
Her new friend Evie is fast becoming a FRENEMY, her home haircut is a DISASTER, and the school showcase is so STRESSFUL! Everything seems to be going wrong! Especially with Granddad getting older every week.
Sunshine needs to find her voice, but can she break through the clouds to stand tall, stand proud and show the world she can SHINE?
10-year-old Karis Sunshine Simpson lives in the West Midlands with her mum (a debt adviser), dad (an accountant), 6-year-old twin brother and sister Peter and Lena (known as the Twinzies) and Grandad Bobby (a legend in the local neighbourhood who is a former bodybuilder who once foiled a robbery in the local grocery store). She goes to Beeches Primary where her best friends are Charley and Arun. She’s also supposed to be friends with newcomer Evie, who has recently moved to the area from the Home Countries but while Sunshine thought that they originally got on, recently she’s begun to wonder about some of the things that Evie has said to her - like how she’s silly - and she can’t help but feel jealous that Evie constantly seems to one-up her.
When Sunshine’s teacher announces that there’s going to be a special assembly at the end of the summer term to celebrate the school’s Golden Jubilee. As part of the celebrations, everyone in Sunshine’s class has to do something on the theme “And this is why X is important to me”. Everyone else seems to know what to do but Sunshine is completely stumped. Fortunately Grandad Bobby is there to help her work it out, only something seems to be wrong with him - he’s taking more naps than usual and Sunshine’s mum and dad keep talking in whispers …
G. M. Linton’s debut novel for readers aged 9+ (illustrated by Fuuji Takashi and Emily Bornoff and the first in a series) is a sensitively written book about learning who you are and what’s important to you while also dealing with the difficult topic of illness, death and grief. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and her and her family’s pride in their identity and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
Sunshine is a really well drawn character who feels completely believable. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship she has with her Grandad Bobby, who is a larger-than-life character, proud of his heritage and who loves his daughters (Sunshine’s mum and Aunty Sharon) and a bit of a local celebrity. My favourite scenes in the book are the heart-to-hearts that Sunshine has with him about her worries and the sensitive advice that he gives her as he seeks to reassure her without stifling her ability to decide for herself who she is and how she wants to grow.
Also believable is the frenemy relationship between Sunshine and Evie. What’s so well done about this is that the reader is likely to pick up on the subtle shade that Evie keeps throwing Sunshine’s way so that they can understand why Sunshine is so unsettled by it and keeps questioning whether it is meant to be a dig or not. My only real quibble with it is whether she really wouldn’t know who George Clooney is when Evie is boasting about a holiday she took in Italy.
There’s plenty of humour in the book as Sunshine goes through some misadventures, including deciding to give herself a haircut that does not go to plan or (my favourite) writing a letter to a French pen pal that’s bit too honest about what she thinks about her classmates. Pacing also works well with Linton maintaining a good balance between plot and character development. I particularly admired how she weaves in the storyline about a character becoming sick and the impact on the family, especially Sunshine’s slow realisation that the character is not going to get better. If you have a young reader who has a relative with a terminal illness or who has recently endured the death of a close relative then I think this book is worth a look because the way Linton depicts this and the impact on not just Sunshine but the rest of her family is sensitively done and I think young readers will find a lot to empathise with here.
Also good is the way Linton incorporates Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and the importance of black history, especially in the UK. I actually learned about a couple of people I had never previously heard of (notably Fanny Eaton, the first black supermodel), which is great and I hope that this is something that continues in the later books.
All in all, I think this is a really great debut novel and the way the book ends sets up a fascinating situation for the sequel. On the strength of this book, I will definitely be checking it out.
The Verdict:
G. M. Linton’s debut novel for readers aged 9+ (illustrated by Fuuji Takashi and Emily Bornoff and the first in a series) is a sensitively written book about learning who you are and what’s important to you while also dealing with the difficult topic of illness, death and grief. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and her and her family’s pride in their identity and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Sunshine’s larger-than-life Grandad is always telling her to get out and find her own adventures, but unfortunately BAD LUCK has a habit of coming her way.
Her new friend Evie is fast becoming a FRENEMY, her home haircut is a DISASTER, and the school showcase is so STRESSFUL! Everything seems to be going wrong! Especially with Granddad getting older every week.
Sunshine needs to find her voice, but can she break through the clouds to stand tall, stand proud and show the world she can SHINE?
10-year-old Karis Sunshine Simpson lives in the West Midlands with her mum (a debt adviser), dad (an accountant), 6-year-old twin brother and sister Peter and Lena (known as the Twinzies) and Grandad Bobby (a legend in the local neighbourhood who is a former bodybuilder who once foiled a robbery in the local grocery store). She goes to Beeches Primary where her best friends are Charley and Arun. She’s also supposed to be friends with newcomer Evie, who has recently moved to the area from the Home Countries but while Sunshine thought that they originally got on, recently she’s begun to wonder about some of the things that Evie has said to her - like how she’s silly - and she can’t help but feel jealous that Evie constantly seems to one-up her.
When Sunshine’s teacher announces that there’s going to be a special assembly at the end of the summer term to celebrate the school’s Golden Jubilee. As part of the celebrations, everyone in Sunshine’s class has to do something on the theme “And this is why X is important to me”. Everyone else seems to know what to do but Sunshine is completely stumped. Fortunately Grandad Bobby is there to help her work it out, only something seems to be wrong with him - he’s taking more naps than usual and Sunshine’s mum and dad keep talking in whispers …
G. M. Linton’s debut novel for readers aged 9+ (illustrated by Fuuji Takashi and Emily Bornoff and the first in a series) is a sensitively written book about learning who you are and what’s important to you while also dealing with the difficult topic of illness, death and grief. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and her and her family’s pride in their identity and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
Sunshine is a really well drawn character who feels completely believable. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship she has with her Grandad Bobby, who is a larger-than-life character, proud of his heritage and who loves his daughters (Sunshine’s mum and Aunty Sharon) and a bit of a local celebrity. My favourite scenes in the book are the heart-to-hearts that Sunshine has with him about her worries and the sensitive advice that he gives her as he seeks to reassure her without stifling her ability to decide for herself who she is and how she wants to grow.
Also believable is the frenemy relationship between Sunshine and Evie. What’s so well done about this is that the reader is likely to pick up on the subtle shade that Evie keeps throwing Sunshine’s way so that they can understand why Sunshine is so unsettled by it and keeps questioning whether it is meant to be a dig or not. My only real quibble with it is whether she really wouldn’t know who George Clooney is when Evie is boasting about a holiday she took in Italy.
There’s plenty of humour in the book as Sunshine goes through some misadventures, including deciding to give herself a haircut that does not go to plan or (my favourite) writing a letter to a French pen pal that’s bit too honest about what she thinks about her classmates. Pacing also works well with Linton maintaining a good balance between plot and character development. I particularly admired how she weaves in the storyline about a character becoming sick and the impact on the family, especially Sunshine’s slow realisation that the character is not going to get better. If you have a young reader who has a relative with a terminal illness or who has recently endured the death of a close relative then I think this book is worth a look because the way Linton depicts this and the impact on not just Sunshine but the rest of her family is sensitively done and I think young readers will find a lot to empathise with here.
Also good is the way Linton incorporates Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and the importance of black history, especially in the UK. I actually learned about a couple of people I had never previously heard of (notably Fanny Eaton, the first black supermodel), which is great and I hope that this is something that continues in the later books.
All in all, I think this is a really great debut novel and the way the book ends sets up a fascinating situation for the sequel. On the strength of this book, I will definitely be checking it out.
The Verdict:
G. M. Linton’s debut novel for readers aged 9+ (illustrated by Fuuji Takashi and Emily Bornoff and the first in a series) is a sensitively written book about learning who you are and what’s important to you while also dealing with the difficult topic of illness, death and grief. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on Sunshine’s Jamaican heritage and her and her family’s pride in their identity and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
