Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | SCD J FICTION REY 3 DISCS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | SCD J FICTION REY 3 DISCS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | SCD J FICTION REY 3 DISCS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | SCD J FICTION REY 3 DISCS | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds.
Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team-a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics. They all have a lot of lose, but they all have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Sunny is the main character in this novel, the third of four books in Jason Reynold's electrifying middle grade series.
Sunny is just that-sunny. Always ready with a goofy smile and something nice to say, Sunny is the chillest dude on the Defenders team. But Sunny's life hasn't always been sun beamy-bright. You see, Sunny is a murderer. Or at least he thinks of himself that way. His mother died giving birth to him, and based on how Sunny's dad treats him-ignoring him, making Sunny call him Darryl, never "Dad"-it's no wonder Sunny thinks he's to blame. It seems the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad's eyes is win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. But Sunny doesn't like running, never has. So he stops. Right in the middle of a race.
With his relationship with his dad now worse than ever, the last thing Sunny wants to do is leave behind the other newbies-his only friends. But you can't be on a track team and not run . So Coach asks Sunny what he wants to do. Sunny's answer? Dance. Yes, dance. But you also can't be on a track team and dance . Then, in a stroke of genius only Jason Reynolds can conceive, Sunny discovers a track event that encompasses the hard hits of hip-hop, the precision of ballet, and the showmanship of dance as a whole: the discus throw. As Sunny practices the discus, learning when to let go at just the right time, he'll let go of everything that's been eating him up inside, perhaps just in time.
Author Notes
Jason Reynolds is the author of When I Was the Greatest, for which he won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. His debut middle grade book, As Brave As You, was awarded the 2016 Kirkus Prize for young readers'. His other works include Boy in the Black Suit, and All American Boys.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Horn Book Review
As in Reynoldss two previous novels in the Track series (Ghost, rev. 11/16; Patina, rev. 11/17), sports arent really the point here--certainly not for Sunny, the teams best miler, who decides, just as hes about to win a race, that he doesnt want to be a runner and, in fact, never did. Coachs subsequent suggestion that he take up the discus instead is cannily reflected in the novels structure, a series of diary entries that each spin around another incident or memory, cumulatively revealing the tragic origins of Sunnys track career. The incantatory leanings of the prose sometimes tend toward repetitiveness, but the slow build of the story allows Sunnys strengths and vulnerabilities to gain him a place in our hearts. When he finally throws the discus in competition--on the last page, no less--we are completely with him. roger Sutton (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sunny is one of the best runners you have ever seen. But the problem, see, is that he doesn't want to run. His mother was a runner, and after she died giving birth to him, his father Darryl decided that Sunny would run to carry on the legacy. But if you carry anything long enough, you begin to stagger under its weight. What Sunny really wants to do is dance. He and his homeschool teacher a colored-haired, tattooed woman named Aurelia dance for the cancer ward patrons at a local hospital. Coach even lets him quit running and starts giving him one-on-one discus lessons, which feels a lot like dancing. But Darryl thinks Sunny is betraying his mother's memory. Reynolds again uses his entrancing grasp of voice to pull readers into the heartbreaking world of the Track series. Sunny's voice is deliberately more scattered and onomatopoetic than the series' prior narrators, and there's a musicality to the text, with words like tickboom and hunger-growl. As with Ghost (2016) and Patina (2017), this book functions equally well as a standalone in this case, a boy with rhythm flowing deeply through his bones while also continuing to deepen the world of this inner-city middle-school track team. This series continues to provide beautiful opportunities for discussion about viewpoint, privilege, loss, diversity of experience, and exactly how much we don't know about those around us. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Reynolds is on a run almost unparalleled in YA, and this standout series will continue to be in demand.--Worthington, Becca Copyright 2018 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Sunny Lancaster is a home-schooled almost-13-year-old torn between duty to run and passion for dance in the latest compulsively readable installment of Reynolds' lauded Track series.On the surface, African-American Sunny appears to have a wealthy, comfortable life that his less-fortunate teammates on the Defenders cannot help but envy. Privilege, however, cannot hide pain, and Sunny feels smothered by guilt over his mother's death immediately after his birth and crushed beneath the weight of his father's expectations for him to become the marathon runner that his beloved mother no longer can be. Once again, Reynolds cements his reputation as a distinguished chronicler of the adolescent condition by presenting readers with a winsome-yet-complex character whose voice feels as fresh as it is distinctive, spontaneously breaking out into onomatopoeic riffs that underscore his sense of music and rhythm. Living in an empty house with colorless walls and unfulfilled familial expectations cannot dim the effervescent nature of a protagonist who names his diary to make it feel more personal, employs charts and graphs to help him find the bravery to forge his own path as a discus-throwing dancer, and finds artistic inspiration in the musical West Side Story. Defenders introduced in earlier novels receive scant treatment, but new characters, such as Sunny's blue-haired teacher/dance instructor, Aurelia, are vibrant and three-dimensional. Main characters' races are not explicitly mentioned, implying a black default.Another literary pacesetter that will leave Reynolds' readers wanting more. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Sunny 1 Friday Dear Diary, It's been a while. And because you're back, because I brought you back (after spiraling your backbone back into place)--backity back back back--Aurelia, for some reason, feels like she needs to be introduced to you all over again. Like she don't know you. Like she don't remember you. But I do. So we don't have to shake hands and do the whole "my name is" thing. But Aurelia might need to do that. Today she asked me if I still call you Diary, or if I call you Journal now. Or maybe Notebook. I told her Diary. I've always called you that. Because I like Diary. Notebook, no. And Dear Journal doesn't really work the same. Doesn't do it for me. Dear Diary is better, not just because of the double D alliteration action, but also because Diary reminds me of the name Darryl, so at least I feel like I'm talking to an actual someone. And Darryl reminds me of the word "dairy," and "dairy" and "diary" are the same except for where i is. And I like dairy. At least milk. I can't drink a lot of it, which you know, because it makes my stomach feel like it's full of glue, which you also know. But I like it anyway. Because I'm weird. Which you definitely know. You know I like weird stuff. And everything about milk is weird. Even the word "milk," which I think probably sounds like what milk sounds like when you guzzle it. Milkmilkmilkmilkmilk. I should start over. Excerpted from Sunny by Jason Reynolds All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
