Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

My second girlie picked out Jennifer L. Holm’s Swing It, Sunny at the library over the summer; this week I finally got around to reading it myself so that I’m ready for Sunny Rolls the Dice when it gets released next month.  It’s been a few years since I read Holm’s first Sunny book, so I can’t make fair comparisons, but I probably liked this one about as much as its predecessor.  Holm’s graphic novels are good books; the Sunny series particularly tells stories that ring true in a style that’s both accessible and compassionate.  I don’t think her graphic offerings are quite the caliber of Raina Telgemeier’s, Valerie Jamieson’s, or Svetlana Chmakova’s, but she has some pretty amazing traditional novels, which makes her talent impressive in its scope.  Swing It follows Sunny after her troubled-teen brother is sent to a military-type boarding school; she misses her brother the way he used to be, but when he comes home for visits he isn’t that person at all.  Sunny’s support people help her along, however, and the ending is a hopeful one.    If you have mid- to upper-elementary graphic novel fans–OR you know kids who are dealing with a sibling’s poor choices–don’t miss out on Sunny.