Sunny's time with her Gramps is, after some adjustment, deliciously empty. These are things that the Holms convey in Sunny Side Up, through story and illustrations. I also have memories of the long, hot days of summer that stretched out ahead of you with a comfortable emptiness and memories of running around with packs of kids and benevolent neglect on the part of the pre-helicopter parents. I was eight in 1976 and I had a colonial girl costume that I wore, although maybe not as much as Tina Fey. As Sunny's days at Pine Palms unfold, flashbacks reveal the events that led her to her grandfather's apartment rather than a vacation at the beach with her best friend. It's August, 1976 and Sunny (short for Sunshine) is getting off a plane in Florida where she will spend the rest of the summer with her grandfather in his retirement community. and Matthew Holm are the sibling team who created the excellent, adventurous, sometimes silly Babymouse and Squish series of graphic novels, but with Sunny Side Up the Holms take on difficult sibling relationships, familial bonds, drug abuse, senior citizens and the bicentennial with a superb clarity and sensitivity.
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