Make a Move, Sunny Park!

Kim, Jessica. Make a Move, Sunny Park!

Published August 15, 2023 by Kokila

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Stand Up, Yumi Chung's cousin Sunny Park isn't quite as gregarious as her relative in Los Angeles. While she's taken ballet with her long time best friend Bailey, she has a lot of social anxiety and feels better dancing if she can do it at home, filming to upload, while wearing an inflatable dinosaur costume. She is enamored with the K-Pop band Supreme Beats and is active on their discussion forum, but Bailey thinks they are silly. Bailey is also the reason Sunny quit ballet; Sunny got a better role in the production of The Nutcracker than Bailey did, and Bailey's parents split, so she quit dance and pressured Sunny to do the same. Now, Bailey thinks that if she tries out for the school dance team at Rancho Mesa Middle School, she can trick her parents into getting back together when they come to watch her perform, even though her mother is now dating Darren. Sunny agrees to try out as well. She practices a lot, and meets Bea and Jayden at the tryouts. Bea knows Sunny from the Supreme Beats forum, and Jayden is the only boy trying out for the squad. On the day of tryouts, Bailey finds out her mother has gotten engaged to Darren, has a melt down, and doesn't try out. Sunny helps her get home after doing a solid job of dancing. Sunny makes the team while Bailey does not, and decides that she will try out the team for a week and then quit. She ends up enjoying it so much that she stays on the team, which makes her relationship with Bailey a bit strained. Sunny's grandmother, Halmoni, lives with Sunny's family and is helpful in convincing Sunny to stay on the team and have some activities that don't involve Bailey. The dance team hopes to make it to a regional competition in San Francisco, and Bea, Jayden, and Sunny try to earn enough money to go to the concert, with Halmoni as their chaperone, but this also means lying to Bailey. Bailey is convinced that Darren is cheating on her mother, and spies on him trying to get proof. Sunny finds herself more and more irritated with Bailey, and enjoys being around her new friends and involved in the dance team more than she enjoys Bailey. It doesn't help that Bailey is mean to her friends, and often calls Sunny away from activities that involve dance team to deal with her crises. When Bailey's mother moves her wedding up to the weekend of the dance competition, Sunny lets her know that this is something she just can't drop. When will Bailey start to support Sunny in the same way that Sunny has supported Bailey?

Strengths: Losing a friend in middle school is such a common occurrence that I am surprised there are not more books about friends who part ways. Bailey is very self involved, which is not an uncommon trait in middle school students, and Sunny is terrified of losing her long time friend. I did enjoy the fact that Sunny made the dance team and enjoyed it even though she tried out just to please Bailey! Bea and Jayden are much more pleasant friends to have, and its good to see them connect and do activities together. Sunny's homelife is interesting; her parents run a parade float making business! Halmoni is a calm and constant presence in Sunny's life, and it wasn't a surprise to read that the character was based on Kim's own grandmother. I love that the grandmother still dances and isn't decrepit at... probably my age! Even though there were some problems in the story, they were every day middle grade ones, this wasn't a sad book. I'm not sure how many of my readers are into K-Pop, but Florence's Sweet and Sour has circulated very well in my library, so my students must not mind it at all! 
Weaknesses: There was a lot going on in this book, and there were several plot lines that could have been removed to make this a tighter story. 352 pages is a bit long for a middle grade book. Also, did we have to mention sending Halmoni back to Korea? That just made me unnecessarily sad! 
What I really think: Definitely purchasing, and I think this will be a popular choice with readers who want the ever popular "friend drama" books!