The month of December is chock-full of great holidays, and February brings Valentine's Day sweetness. But the time between January 1st and February 14th is mostly weeks and weeks of cold winter. Wouldn't it be the perfect place to institute a new and super fun kid-centered celebration? Nine-year-old Sunny thinks so, and so does her best friend Jazzy. Now that the excitement of December has passed, Sunny sets out to make January more magical and important. But what type of holiday should the new one be? What, for Sunny, is most important and most worth honoring?
Sunny Holiday is the wise, kind-hearted and poetic heroine of Coleen Murtagh Paratore's latest chapter book, SUNNY HOLIDAY.
Sunny lives in a run-down apartment complex in Riverton, New York. Her mother works as a housekeeper at a hotel during the day and takes evening college classes. Her father is finishing up a short prison term and will be home soon. Around her is urban decay, poverty and blight but also hope and unexpected beauty. Both Sunny's parents are artists --- her father is a visual artist who hides his work in a portfolio under the bed, and her mother is a singer and all-around creative force. They try to teach her to see beyond the usual and typical, and she is beginning to take their lessons to heart in a very real way.
At first Sunny hopes her holiday will be filled with candy and fun, costumes and music. But, as she works on it, and as other events come together around her, her plans become more serious, more personal and more interesting. Soon she finds herself expressing the needs and desires of her family and her neighbors in a most surprising way, realizing that her voice and ideas can become catalysts for change.
Paratore's prose is lyrical and lovely. Sunny's narration is a natural, urban poetry shaped by culture and imagination. The characters around her, especially the women, are dynamic and loving, even in less than ideal circumstances. Thus SUNNY HOLIDAY blends realism and whimsy for a story with a moral but lacks preachy, heavy-handed or annoying moralizing. Overall, this is a nicely written and thoughtful novel for young readers and grown-ups to share.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
