Saving Sunshine

Want a more diverse version of SISTERS or a middle grade graphic novel that pulls on the heartstrings of animal lovers? Pick up Saving Sunshine, a short middle grade graphic novel that follows two pre-teen siblings who cannot get along on a family vacation to Florida where a tortoise provides a unique opportunity for them to reconnect.

Zara is what I call “classic sister mode” in that she’s a bit more high strung, focused on her animal activism work, and addicted to her naure happy. Zeeshan is interior but selfish space-loving brother who cannot be away from his phone because what if NASA does another video. Unfortunately, their phone addictions don’t keep them busy enough to stop their bickering, and their parents are exhausted by it. When they arrive in Florida for a family vacation meets work conference for their doctor parents, the arguments go to far, the phones go to the safe, and the twins are left together to find out how to keep themselves sane. Zara discovers a tortroise on the beach and takes to caring for him, which provides an opportunity for Zeeshan to see her in a new light. Throughout the book, we get flashbacks of pivotal moments from their life, especially moments of micro and macro-aggressions about their Muslim identity, including bullying at school, questions about Zara wearing hijab, etc. Throughout, we see an undertone of Zeeshan not being brave enough to stand up for his sister (for various, sometimes good reasons! It’s hard!) and eventually he comes to see what has to be done, just as a storm bears down on the beach and the siblings have to stick together.

While I enjoyed this book and definitely liked the merits of it, I cannot help but thinking there’s like…150 more pages of this graphic novel somewhere. Everything happens really quickly or in less than detailed set ups. I could have used a lot more time with Sunshine, especially since tortosies heal so slowly. I could see this story taking up multiple graphic novels, or being much thicker, but this was a thinner graphic novel–probably like 200 pages–and I thought the pacing was uneven, even if I liked it overall!

I’ll definitely recommend this to my readers—they’ll like the soft, not too shiny but still digital illustration style, the story and the heart, but I do think they’ll want more meat to the non-sibling parts of the story.