Sunny Books in Order

The Sunny books are quieter than Babymouse, but they hit just as hard in their own way. This series follows Sunny Lewin, a thoughtful girl growing up in the 1970s, as she tries to make sense of family trouble, friendship shifts, and the confusing business of becoming herself. The books are funny, but they never fake easy answers.

It starts with a summer that isn't what Sunny expected.

In Sunny Side Up, Sunny is sent to Florida to stay with her grandfather in a retirement community. She expects something closer to vacation fun and gets a place full of very old people, a comic-book-loving new friend named Buzz, and the nagging sense that the adults around her are keeping something from her. That family secret, tied to her older brother Dale, gives the whole series its emotional center. Sunny is dealing with real hurt, even when the page is bright and the jokes keep landing.

The later books follow her home and forward. Swing it, Sunny brings her into middle school, where missing Dale and pretending to be fine at the same time turns out to be exhausting. Sunny Rolls the Dice is about not fitting the mold of what middle school is supposed to be, and finding a better home in a Dungeons and Dragons group than in the chase to look cool. Sunny Makes a Splash shifts to a summer pool job, a little more freedom, and the first stirrings of romance. Sunny Makes Her Case pushes her into bigger choices about school, confidence, and the kind of person she wants to become.

What makes the series stand out is how grounded Sunny feels. She is not the loudest kid in the room, and she is not written like a perfect lesson-teaching heroine. She gets jealous. She avoids things. She wants people to be okay, even when they are not. She is funny in a dry, observant way, and the books leave room for her to be uncertain.

The setting matters too. The 1970s give the series a specific texture without turning it into costume drama. Kids roam more freely, make their own fun, and live with a little more unsupervised time, which suits Sunny's story. But the emotional questions are timeless: What do you do when someone you love changes? How do you find your people? How do you stop measuring yourself by everyone else's version of cool?

These are graphic novels, so the reading experience stays approachable, but the feelings are full middle grade. The tone is warm, openhearted, and honest about family pain without becoming heavy all the time.

If you want a growing-up series that mixes jokes, awkwardness, and genuine emotional weight, Sunny does that beautifully. It is the story of a kid learning that growing up is not about becoming fearless. It is about learning how to keep going, even when life gets messy.