Sunny Sweet Is So Not Sorry by Jennifer Ann Mann (review)

Fifth-grader Masha wakes up with a crown of plastic flowers glued to her hair and knows it’s the work of her six-year-old sister, Sunny, who is, according to Masha, “the devil.” The day goes from bad to worse when Masha spots her neighbor, Mrs. Song, passed out on the driveway. What follows is a madcap adventure at the hospital involving false identities, impersonation, a public head-shaving, secret meetings in the basement, and a narrow escape. The dynamic between the two sisters is both complicated and authentic; Sunny is generally perceived as adorable and brilliant and subsequently never gets in trouble for her antics, which drives Masha completely crazy as she is often at the receiving end of one of Sunny’s experiments. In her defense, Sunny doesn’t mean to upset her sister and generally has sincere motives (she put the crown on her sister’s head to help Masha get the attention she wants from the popular girls). Masha is hyperreactive to Sunny, leading to elevated tensions and lots of yelling, but readers will definitely relate to her frustrations (“If only they could all see her crispy little black heart like I could”). The plot, however, is contrived and implausible, especially in the hospital scenes (Masha receives both a full arm cast and a dose of pain medication intended for another patient), so the book loses touch with the sharp-eyed realism that makes the characterization effective. The dynamic between the sisters mostly manages to carry the story, however, and readers may warm to the intricacies of their relationship. Final illustrations not seen.