School Library Journal Review
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
Horn Book Review
When seventh-grader Sunny takes the Are You a Groovy Teen? quiz in Teen!, you know it wont 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 Sunnys essential good sense and the magic of DD. 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 September/October 2019 p.89(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Sunny, in seventh grade, finds her score on the Groovy Meter taking some wild swings as her friends' interests move in different directions.In a motif that haunts her throughout, Sunny succumbs to a teen magazine's personality quiz and sees her tally seesaw radically. Her BF Deb has suddenly switched focus to boys, clothes, and bands such as the Bee Gees (this is 1977)dismissing trick-or-treating and wearing galoshes on rainy days as "babyish." Meanwhile, Sunny takes delight in joining nerdy neighbors Lev, Brian, and Arun in regular sessions of Dungeons and Dragons (as a fighter character, so cool). The storytelling is predominantly visual in this episodic outing, with just occasional snatches of dialogue and pithy labels to fill in details or mark the passage of time; frequent reaction shots deftly capture Sunny's feelings of being pulled this way and that. Tellingly, in the Holms' panels (colored by Pien), Sunny's depicted as significantly smaller than Deb, visually underscoring her developmental awkwardness. Deb's comment that "we're too old to be playing games like that" leads Sunny to drop out of the DD circle and even go to the school's staggeringly dull spring dance. Sunny's mostly white circle of peers expands and becomes more diverse as she continues to navigate her way through the dark chambers and misty passages of early adolescence. Lev is an Orthodox Jew, Arun is South Asian, and Regina, another female friend, has brown skin.The dice are rolling readers' way in this third outing. (Graphic historical fiction. 10-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
It's 1977 and Sunny's in seventh grade and coming up short on the groovy meter. Her best friend is into shopping at the mall, getting her ears pierced, and scoring a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. But Sunny's just been introduced to Dungeons and Dragons, and like many kids of the 1970s (and since), the game ignites her imagination and sense of camaraderie with her fellow players, all boys, and starts to take over her world. It comes down to a battle between what's groovy and what's fulfilling, and Sunny doesn't leave that choice to a roll of the dice. The deeper anxiety surrounding her brother's hard times, which are chronicled in Sunny's previous outings, is behind them he's in the Navy and doing well. But Sunny's social concerns feel real and relevant, and her sincere devotion to the game could help middle-schoolers embrace what's truly meaningful to them. The zippy flow, snappy cartooning, and vibrant colors keep everything upbeat, even when Sunny is running from dreaded gelatinous cubes through dungeon hallways.--Jesse Karp Copyright 2010 Booklist
