Sunny by Jason Reynolds is a middle-grade novel written in epistolary format through diary entries. The diary takes the form of the reader, where sometimes it feels like he’s talking directly to you, the reader. Sunny is the third book in the Track series. The Track series follows the lives of the four middle graders, Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu, and their Coach. Sunny, the protagonist in this book, is self-admittedly weird. He is a quiet kid with a loud, questioning internal voice. Sunny runs long distances in memory of his mother, who died while giving birth. He doesn’t like running, never did, he likes to dance. So what if he stopped running? The story explores many internal issues. These include living up to parents’ expectations and burying feelings. It also looks at doing what makes you happy despite hurting others. I think this is a good book for kids who have recently lost a parent. It looks at the pain of the other parent and what the kid is going through. The theme of this book is that life is always in motion. This idea fits with the track event in this book, the discus. Despite this book’s heavy themes, it does have some great moments of humor. Sunny is not the greatest dancer, but he loves it and is not afraid to show it. One of my favorite scenes is when the coach asks Sunny what he wants to do. The answer is dance, and he does it right then and there. Sunny by Jason Reynolds was first published on April 10, 2018.

Why did I read Sunny by Jason Reynolds? Sunny is the third book in the Track series. I’m reading the series in order, to read Coach, the 5th book in the series. Coach came out on October 14, 2025. As I’m writing this today (October 16, 2025), I’m going to a signing for his new book, Coach. Jason is a fantastic writer. PBS’s Great American Read featured him for his book Ghost. Ghost is the first book in the Track series. I have been a fan ever since.

Plot Summary: Sunny is a unique individual. He is very quiet on the outside. However, he has this incredible voice on the inside. He shares this voice in his diary. Sunny questions if he is a murderer since his mother died while having him. Sunny runs long distances for her, but he never got a choice in it. Everything he’s heard about his mother, she wouldn’t want him doing something he didn’t want to. So he stops mid race and lets everyone pass him. His dad and coach can’t figure out what is wrong. When he tells his dad he doesn’t want to run anymore, things don’t go great. When he tells his coach he doesn’t want to run but wants to dance, he shows him. The coach has an idea, the discus. Sunny will have to learn a whole new skill to compete.

What I Liked: I’m not usually a fan of epistolary format, but I felt it was the most effective way to tell this story. The internal thoughts of Sunny, who feels like he killed his mother, are deep. His father has him call him Darryl because he feels like it is cheating without the mom. There are deep issues that are dealt with in a real way. Sunny and his father have a breakthrough night where barriers come down, but it is not a happy ending. It is a conversation starter for a fresh new beginning of understanding. Everything is not magically resolved, but it’s a start. I did love the I just want to dance Coach, then performs his routine as Coach slowly works out what to do with Sunny. I love the way Sunny talks to his Diary like a person. He asks questions that will never be answered for himself and us, the reader.

What I Disliked: Sunny has barely spoken in the first two books of the Track series. So his voice took a while to get used to. Sunny likes onamonapias, so there’s a lot of whooshes and other words like that. It was too much at times.

Recommendation: Sunny is a fantastic read. The shortest novel in the Track series. Since it was diary entries, the pages flew by. I think this is a great novel for a shy kid. This is also a great novel to get your kid to start writing in a diary or journal. I recommend my followers check out Sunny and other novels in the Track series.

Rating: Sunny by Jason Reynolds. I rated 4.1 out of 5.

Ranking: I have read and reviewed 5 books by Jason Reynolds. I will rank them from favorite to least favorite: 1) Long Way Down, 2) Ghost, 3) Sunny, 4)Patina, and 5) Miles Morales: Spider-Man.