Twelve-year-old Freya was happy but now life has come crashing down. Dad has moved away to take up a new job and mum is uprooting Freya to open up a café in Eltham. Leaving her two homes and two best friends behind, Freya has no interest in new beginnings. Being the new girl in town sucks and change isn’t easy.
For Freya basketball is life. But in Eltham the nice kids play netball and the ones who make life difficult at school are the same ones who she must take to the basketball court with. And her woes don’t end there. Mum has rented an apartment on the eleventh floor and Freya is afraid of lifts. With no hope in sight, can Freya find a way to rise above the challenges and turn her bitter life on Vinegar Street into something sweet…
Friendship, family and basketball; a wonderful and heartwarming story of picking yourself up when life is doing its absolute best to keep you down. Narrated by Freya and told in such an authentic voice, raw feelings leap off every page as she relates her frustrations and the unfairness of her situation before eventually finding hope, community, belonging and peers that she can genuinely call friends. Any child who has ever felt like the outsider will be able to connect with Freya and can be hopeful that dark clouds will give way to better days and sunshine.
Told in accessible verse and pitched for middle-graders, Sunshine on Vinegar Street is an honest and heartfelt exploration of moving home and all of the challenges that it brings. Full of big feelings and emotions, the highs and lows of life, and the trials and tribulations of friendships and family relationships, Karen Comer accurately depicts the life of an adolescent who is desperate to fit in, to shine playing the sport that she lives for and to be accepted by her peers. Funny and sad in equal measure, Freya leaves you feeling like you’ve drained a long-range three-pointer one moment and then watched your easy lay-up roll around the rim and out again the next. Things are sunshine and rainbows one moment but you always know that the thunder clouds are just around the corner, waiting to ruin the day. Charting her successes and failures like only a sports-star would, with a competing points scoring system that pitches herself against her new town, competitive Freya may be unhappy with the upheaval but her fierce determination to win and to be the best version of herself is a major driving force as she seeks to silence the bullies, shine on court and deal with the negative comments about her conception as an IVF baby. A terrific read and one that children in their later years of primary school will thoroughly enjoy. Recommended for 9+. With huge thanks to Allen and Unwin for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.
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