My Book is Sunny by Jason Reynolds and it is a Fiction Novel that is also in the Young-Adult genre is some ways. It could also be qualified to be in the Sports category but it does not fit that type of normal sports story in the way that there is almost no focus on sports for almost the entirety of the book. The main themes or messages that it gives for many portions of the book include accepting the past, how you cannot change it and moving on, and accepting that something did not turn out the way you might have wanted it to but the end product can still be really good. These main themes occur do to what happens with the main character, Sunny, and his dad having different opinions on what Sunny should do regarding his involvement in his running. Sunny’s mother died when he was born and she was a successful runner and his parents wanted Sunny to continue it and that did happen, Sunny won many races for the mile and was the best runner in his area but his father even after a solid win still heavily critiques how he runs and always brings up his mother. Eventually this annoys Sunny and he wants to quit and he develops a passion for dancing. So on one race at the end of the last lap he just stops while in first place and after a bit Sunny and dad talk it out and understand that he is quitting running. Sunny is homeschooled by his tutor Aureilia who becomes a third party to the situation and helps Sunny get what he wants and eventually after time his dad reflects and then has to see what he should do. There are many parts of the book that are interesting because there is something that happens that add a lot to the plot and have interesting effects later on but many parts of the book are really boring and slow paced because it shows Sunny’s all over the place thought processes and nothing much happens. I agree with the author’s opinions about accepting the past even if it may be hard however, to me, what is more important is not making other people suffer from it when they had nothing to do with what happened the way that the people involved in it may have. The book raises issues about following your passions vs what other people want you to do and continuing what your parents do. It leaves out how if it is done right at a young age and they enjoy it then it is okay. This book slightly changed my opinions about these issues because it showed me that there is a balance that should not be broken. In conclusion, this book is okay but quite bipolar in terms of enjoyment at times and gives some thought provoking issues, and if you read it for the first time it is better to ignore all of the main character’s thoughts that add nothing.
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