Sunnyside Plaza

October 1, 2019
Sally Miyake is a 19-year-old woman who tells readers, "I can't read, but I see, I hear, and I notice things." She lives in Sunnyside Plaza, a group home for developmentally disabled adults of all ages and abilities. The staff members are dedicated to providing physical and emotional care as well as a bit of independence and responsibility. The residents have difficulties understanding concepts such as death or the passage of time. But they accept one another's strengths and weaknesses, valuing kindness above all. Sally proudly works in the kitchen under the direction of Conrad, doing small but necessary chores. When one of her family of friends dies from a stroke, detectives Bridges and Rivas are called to investigate. They soon come to admire Sally's directness and warm heart, and they become part of her life outside the investigation. Sally uses her observational skills to try to understand what has happened, actually cracking the case when she learns that someone who has been trusted is not trustworthy. Supporting characters are presented with love and appreciation for their best qualities. Sally's challenges are part and parcel of her shining humanity, and readers will come to love her. Naming conventions and descriptions indicate wide diversity, but Sally's implied Japanese heritage plays no part in the story. A tender insight into being different and wonderful. (author's note) (Mystery. 9-14)

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Starred review from October 21, 2019
NPR broadcaster and author Simon makes his children’s book debut with this novel inspired by his experience, as a young man, working at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. Ingenuous narrator Sally Miyake (“Sal Pal”), a resident of the Sunnyside Plaza community center, easily draws readers into her story, confiding, “I can’t read, but I see, I hear, and I notice things.” Fixated on numbers, she communicates her age as “8 times 2 plus 3,” and believes that her long-absent mother “will be back when she can take care of me.” The teen and her fellow residents instinctively support one another and provide mutual solace when two tenants die suddenly and another suffers a mysterious fall. Two detectives investigating the deaths bring untold joy into Sal Pal’s life when they take her under their wing, inviting her to her first-ever baseball game and a family seder, and soliciting her help solving the deaths, given her keen perspicacity. In heartbreaking moments, Simon also lays bare the profound humiliation that Sal Pal and her friends feel when marginalized, as when a woman at the park deems “those people... crazy.” A resoundingly poignant novel with an acutely intuitive and empathic protagonist. Ages 8–up.

November 1, 2019
Grades 4-8 Sunnyside Plaza is a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities, and Sally, the narrator of radio journalist Simon's first book for children, is the youngest resident at 19. The atmosphere is warm and supportive, and Sally is mostly content. When one of the residents dies in his sleep, two detectives come to the home to investigate. Ensuing deaths and medical incidents increase suspicion of foul play, and Sally recruits her friends to help solve the mystery. The solution is almost banal; a distributor donating canned goods has been putting new labels on long-expired cans of food, the contents of which can interact dangerously with some medication. The odyssey Sally and the others undertake to the police station has a dreamlike quality as they make a number of mostly positive contacts along the way. While the topic may seem odd for a middle-grade novel, Simon makes it work. He depicts his characters with compassion, not condescension, and not only is this hopeful, happy story accessible to middle-graders, it should appeal to older readers as well.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)