Sunny Side Up 

Written by Jennifer L. Holm and Illustrated by Matthew Holm with color by Lark Pien

Published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2015

Sunny goes to Florida to visit her grandfather, she has high hopes of an awesome summer, but when she gets there she realizes that her summer is going to be spent with a whole bunch of old people. That is until she meets Buzz who turns it all around with all of their adventures. While her summer does not end up being as bad as she thought the question is why was she sent away for the summer? What is going on at home?
Lexile Level: GN240L
Age Range: 8-13 years
Page Count: 217
Suggested Delivery: Independent Read

Key Words: Summer, Vacation, Family, Guilt, Disappointment

Internet Resources:
Jennifer L. Holm's Website
http://www.jenniferholm.com
This is the authors website. This would be great for the students to get to know the author. She has a link called Book Report Central which is all about the herself. There are also links for educators as well as a trailer for the book.
Matthew Holm's Resource Page
http://www.matthewholm.net/2009/04/graphic-content-matthew-holms-2009-irc.html
This is a great resource for teacher who want to teach their students about graphic novels. Matthew Holm has complied a list of resources for teachers with links to articles on how to teach graphic novels and lessons to use.

Vocabulary

• Terrific: extremely good.
• Bazaar: a fundraising sale of things usually for charity.  
• Emphysema: a disease in which there is damage to the lungs which causes breathlessness. 
• Bicentennial: a two-hundredth celebration of a significant event. 
• Comics: a way of expressing a story through images and very few words. 
• Tourist: a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure. 

Teaching Suggestions:

1. Since this is a graphic novel I would ask the students to pick one of the scenes in the novel and write what they think was going on in that scene based on the pictures. After they have written it down ask them to share with the class the scene that they saw from those pictures. 
2. This book deals with a pretty serious topic, I think that it would be beneficial to have a whole class book talk so that if they have any questions the teacher can be able to answer them. If the students do not bring up what Sunny's brother did on their own the teacher can prompt this discussion by asking what happened between Sunny and her brother.  

Reading Strategies:

1. Before: Since many of the student may not have ever read a graphic novel I think it is important to teach a mini lesson prior to reading. Here is a link to a PowerPoint created by the illustrator of Sunny Side Up about graphic novels that you could use.   
2. During: Break the book into 4 sections and assign each group a section in which they are responsible for teaching the rest of the class about. Each group will be asked to present to the class their part of the reading. Ask students to pay attention to the problem in the story and the final resolution.  
3. After: Ask the students to complete an exit slip after finishing the book. Ask them to write down one thing that they learned about graphic novels. Ask them to relate this new fact to something that they read in Sunny Side Up.  

Writing Activity:

Ask the students to respond to the prompt: "Write about a time in your life when you had to have a difficult conversation with a friend or family member. Make sure to make connections between how you felt and how Sunny was feeling in the novel."