Holm certainly totally capturing especially late 1970s media and television culture).įor even though the baton twirling scenarios depicted in Swing it, Sunny are definitely not in any manner my personal experience (and actually if truth be told, a trifle too USA for me, but still very much of historical and cultural interest), the many allusions to television shows like The Brady Bunch, the Six Million Dollar Man, to soap operas like General Hospital (even though I never really got into soap operas, but indeed most of my classmates were most certainly totally hooked) and especially Sunny coming home with a pet rock, that all does so much remind me of my first years in Canada and especially being suddenly inundated with and by multiple television channels and so so many more viewing choices than we had in Germany that I was both amazed and sometimes a bit aghast. Holm's sweetly brilliant graphic novel Sunny Side Up (and of course also Matthew Holm, Jennifer's brother who acts as main illustrator), although Swing it, Sunny is not quite as personally relatable and thus as approachable (and readable) as the first book, Swing it, Sunny has nevertheless been an entertaining, nostalgic and at times even thought-provoking reading (and viewing) experience for and to me (and this especially with regard to both time and place, with Jennifer L. I can only imagine what Sunny will think once the original Star Wars movie premieres by the arrival of her next summer break!Īlthough the sequel to Jennifer L. Also, the continued 70's references (artifacts?) - a Pet Rock, a bright orange AMC Gremlin coupe, the Six Million Dollar Man TV series - were a plus, and there was also a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo appearance by Scooby-Doo's colorful Mystery Machine van during a scene set on a highway. Refreshingly, this loose and episodic story (in fact, it's more like a series of several vignettes) does not center around her being a student - that only consists of a few pages at most - but instead mostly centers on Sunny trying to understand her troubled older brother's issues and their impact on the family dynamic. She's back home in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania (woot-woot!) after her month-long vacation of sorts in Florida, and is now starting middle school in the autumn of 1976. Modest sequel to Sunny Side Up, this follow-up - which was again amusing and bittersweet, exactly like its predecessor - continues the day-to-day life of ten year-old Sunny Lewin. When things get bad, sometimes they take it out on the people who they should be turning to for help." - Sunny's mom, page 193
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