Alrighty, I am only 17 days late into the year. For January I read “The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James” by Ashley Herring Blake.
Title: The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James
Author: Ashley Herring Blake
Publisher: Little Brown Books Group/Hachette
Release Date: March 26th, 2019
Age range: Middle grade 8-12 year olds (3rd-6th grade)
Summary: This is a remarkable tale of a coming of age. Young Sunny St. James is entering the summer going to middle school, and emotions seem to be coming in never ending large waves. After getting a heart transplant, her distant mother who she hasn’t seen in almost 8 years want to reconnect with her. Oh yes, and poor Sunny is entering the messy and confusing world of having a first crush/kiss and dealing with growing pains of childhood best friend. But Sunny is if nothing a rather determined young girl. After receiving a new heart she has three step plan for her “new found” life. 1.) Do awesome amazing things she could never do before. 2.) Find a new best friend. And finally 3.) kiss a boy for the first time.
Review: I am in love with this book and completely bias towards it. This particular author in the last year or so has become very high on my favorite list. I being bisexual love to find and read stories of other LGBTQ+ individuals. Ms. Blake in her stories have touched me personally. I have been able to find many teen angsty novels about being gay or bisexual etc. But in middle grade I have only recently found a few. The two pictures above being a couple of those stories in middle grade. Ashley Blake’s characters are portrayed well for their age. Where at 12 you still find some childish things fun, but at the same time you are trying to be the “cool” and “rebellious” teen you were born to be. She hits the pin on the head of a character right before hitting puberty, the tween essence of having lots of mixed feelings. I could ramble on and on about her books all day. That being said I will try to narrow it down to two fantastic things Blake has done in both The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James and Ivy’s Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. Number 1 both of her main characters’ identity and labels are set in stone. Both Ivy and Sunny are right in the “questioning” phase. Where questions arise such as “but what if I really just like her as a friend?” “is me liking girls good or bad?” “Do I still like guys?” “Which person/friend should I talk to about all these crush feelings?” “No...no but I still wonder about boys so I can’t be gay can I?” It was refreshing to read a stage where the characters are still debating and unsure, and to be able to connect with the characters. As I read I caught myself many times remembering and reminiscing on asking many of the very same questions. I also really enjoyed the pure innocence of most of the questioning and crushing on people. Again reminding me that having a crush on someone isn’t always about “smashing” or”doing it” or proclaiming to the world you are gay. Reminding me of the giddy feeling of an early crush, where you are just super excited to be around that said person no matter what you are doing. My second favorite things about these novels, that while they had a heavy lean on LGBTQ+ issues, it wasn’t solely based around it. In both of these books the characters are dealing with really interesting and life changing events that Sunny and Ivy have to struggle through and face.
I rambled quiet a bit in this review/post. I will work on shortening my reviews as I continue. For those who are interested in hearing about the books I read, thank you for staying with me. I mentioned two books in the post because while Sunny’s book doesn’t come out until March. Ivy’s book (the second picture) is already out and accessible in bookstores and libraries (hopefully near you!)
