My Name is Sunshine Simpson

Karis Sunshine Simpson, normally just called Sunshine, is 10 years old, and had been happy at school and home, until things change. She has been on the Wall of Fame as a champion speedy skipper until a new girl, Evie, proves faster, and Evie soon becomes more of a threat than a friend, making snidey backhanded compliments that distress Sunshine.  The school’s Golden Jubilee is coming up, and the Head wants it to be an opportunity for all the pupils to shine, but Sunshine has lost confidence in herself and worries about what she might do. Her good friends Charley and Arun help her to keep going, but the right idea takes a while to emerge.

At home, Grandad, a former body-builder with huge hands, and her great ally, is getting slower and needs a rest more often. Eventually Grandad has to go into a hospice, and he dies near the end (this reader had a lump in her throat), but it’s beautifully handled, and we know that Grandad’s sayings, and the family’s memories of him, will live on. Grandad had come over from Jamaica, and still retains the speech rhythms, but everything is easy to follow, and there are some references to West Indian food and culture. It’s a colourful family, Mum, Dad, the younger ‘Twinzies’, and especially Auntie Sharon, whose taste in clothes and furnishings is exotic, to say the least, and they are all very supportive of Sunshine and her desire to do well in the show. Sunshine knows why Grandad’s hospice is called Mary Seacole House, but she has to catch up with some other cultural references e.g. Evie’s boast about seeing the back of George Clooney’s head has her referring to him as Dooley etc., and Dad enjoys music by a band called Queen, or maybe King…

Sunshine gets into some scrapes: she tries to trim her own wayward hair, tells her French pen-pal far too much about her difficulties and is mortified when the reply is read out in class, and she actually has a physical fight with Evie, but finally we learn why Evie was so nasty to Sunshine. Of course, the show, where some pupils reveal their hidden talents, and Sunshine’s turn, where she demonstrates her pride in who she is, is hugely successful. This book is published to celebrate the Windrush anniversary, and it is a funny and delightful book.