Sunshine Simpson lives with her parents, her twin siblings and her grandad. At school, she has been helping new girl, Evie, to settle in, however, the more she gets to know Evie, the more she feels that she is being unkind to her. Evie seems to be better at everything and Sunshine's confidence is wavering. Then, when their teacher announces that every class in school will be doing an assembly to celebrate the Golden Jubilee and the theme for their class is 'And this is why x is important to me', Sunshine really begins to worry as she feels she needs to outdo Evie. She turns to her grandad for help: he's the life and soul of everything and known to all; he's the ox-man who loves life and lives it to the full, but even he isn't his usual self, and Sunshine doesn't know what's happening or why there seems to be lots of 'big people business' going on without her. The closer they get to the assembly, the more Sunshine seems to be suffering from 'lost-voice-itis', but can she recover it in time?
Sunshine is a wonderful character who is most definitely not perfect. She is doing her best to be a good friend, a good daughter and grand-daughter and to find her way in the world, but things just don't seem to be making sense to her at the minute and her confidence is being well and truly knocked. I can imagine that there will be so many children who will be able to relate to Sunshine and I love that she doesn't quite get things right and that she feels a little lost. Friendships can often be tricky and this book highlights that in the best way: you just never know what's going on at home, and Sunshine's trying to cope with the changes she sees in her grandad as well as everything that is going on at school. At so many points in the book, I wanted to reach into the pages I give her a hug ... especially after she'd picked up the scissors!
With themes of friendship, family, heritage and grief all woven beautifully into the story, My Name Is Sunshine Simpson, is a book that will make you shed a tear or two but will leave you with a warm glow in your heart. It reminds readers that it's ok not to have all the answers, that friendship can be tricky at times but it's worth working for; it shows us that we all make mistakes and it shows us that being ourselves and being proud of that is something we should all be striving for.
Released on the 11th May, My Name Is Sunshine Simpson is an uplifting story and I know that my copy will be in big demand as soon as I take it into school.
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