44 pages 1-hour read

Sunny

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Essay Topics

1.

An important theme in the text is the idea that two opposing ideas can be true at once. Identify one of the instances of this idea in the text and explain how it influences Sunny.

2.

How does Sunny use sound and movement to cope and to understand the world around him?

3.

How do the puzzles Sunny and Darryl do together bring them together? How do the puzzles function as a symbol of their family?

4.

Sunny and his friends are on the Defenders track team. Why is this an appropriate name for the team?

5.

What role does Aurelia and Coach play in helping Sunny to accept himself? How do they show their support of him and his development?

6.

Sunny and Darryl struggle to connect with one another. Explain how and why their relationship evolves over the course of the novel.

7.

What is the significance of Sunny’s interest in the film Baraka? How does this motif shape your understanding of the text?

8.

What is the significance of breathing in the text and how does the meaning of breathing evolve as the novel progresses?

9.

How do Sunny and Darryl each cope with the death of Sunny’s mother? How do these coping mechanisms affect their relationship, and how do they change over the course of the text?

10.

The novel ends on a cliffhanger. Why do you think Reynolds chose not to show the outcome of the track meet? What does this choice suggest about the outcome of Sunny’s story?

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