Brother-and-sister team Matthew and Jennifer L. Holm (Squish, Babymouse) reach an older audience with Sunny Side Up, an entertaining, bittersweet graphic novel in which 10-year-old Sunny Lewin is shipped off to her grandfather in Florida when her troubled teen brother, Dale, derails the family's planned beach vacation.
Inky lines awash in flamingo pinks and blues set the scene. It's August of 1976, and Sunny's looking for Gramps, due to pick her up at the West Palm Beach airport. As they drive into Pine Palms, a retirement community, Sunny wonders if there are any kids there. " 'Fraid not. No kids. Or pets," chuckles Gramps. Every day Gramps proclaims, "I have BIG PLANS for today!" and it isn't long before Sunny realizes that means not Disney World, but waiting in line at the post office. Enter the groundskeeper's son Buzz! Buzz introduces Sunny to the world of comic-book superheroes and, happily, is game for any adventure, be it rounding up lost cats or hunting for golf balls in alligator-infested waters. As Sunny's thoughts circle back to her brother (who she starts to imagine as the out-of-control Hulk), readers follow her back in time to Pennsylvania to replay scenes of Dale's drinking and drug use that add up to a sobering picture of his downward spiral.
The Holms tell this poignant, multi-threaded story with great warmth and humor, and exquisite comic timing. Of all the superheroes, Sunny ends up liking Swamp Thing the best, because of "no disguises or secrets." As Gramps bids his granddaughter goodbye, he tells her to keep her "sunny side up," and it seems that she just might manage it. --Karin Snelson, children's editor, Shelf Awareness