Sunny Rolls the Dice

Starred review from October 1, 2019

Gr 4-7-It's 1977, and Sunny is just starting seventh grade. She joins a group of boys who play Dungeons & Dragons, and she thoroughly enjoys the game, intrigued by the exciting stories and unusual monsters. Sunny also finds reminders of the game in real life, like comparing the gelatin in the school cafeteria to gelatinous cube monsters and applying the "always check for traps" rule to other risky tasks. But Sunny gets mixed messages from other girls and from teen magazines about how girls should look and act, and she starts to avoid the D & D group. It will be easy for readers to identify with likable Sunny as she struggles to balance her self-image with other people's ideas about who she should be. Colorful, cartoony art adds humor and appeal. Though the book is the third in the series about Sunny, newcomers will easily dive right in. VERDICT A sweet, funny, and silly story with a serious message at its core: stop trying so hard to be cool, and just have fun being yourself.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
Color by Lark Pien. In her third 1970s-set graphic novel, now-seventh-grader Sunny becomes an eager initiate of Dungeons & Dragons. She tries to remain true to herself while watching her friends race ahead to hot-rollers and boys. Sunny's fans know she'll be fine, but not before an entertaining series of social gaffes and identity crises is met with her essential good sense--and the magic of D&D.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2019
When seventh-grader Sunny takes the Are You a Groovy Teen? quiz in Teen!, you know it won't go well. I mean, she still wears galoshes, a definite zero on the Groovy Meter. And then she has to go and become an eager initiate of Dungeons & Dragons, which might now have a nostalgic hipness in the wake of Stranger Things but was not something the cool kids did in 1977. Can Sunny remain true to herself, even as she sees best friend Deb racing ahead to the world of hot-rollers and boys? Readers of the first two Sunny books (Sunny Side Up, rev. 9/15; Swing It, Sunny, rev. 11/17 ) will know that Sunny will be fine, but not before an entertaining series of social gaffes and identity crises is met with Sunny's essential good sense and the magic of D&D. Periodic appraisals by the Groovy Meter provide this graphic novel with a funny throughline of high and low (mostly low) moments, and the cartoon panels evoke the seventies vibe with just the mildest of satire ( Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans! ) and plenty of affection. roger Sutton

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)