• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12
• Reading age: 12 to 18

Paradise Manor is depressing -- the smells are bad and the residents are old. Sunny would much rather be doing her volunteer hours at Salon Teo, but her teacher won't let her. Who says volunteering at a hair salon doesn't benefit the community”

But working with the Alzheimer's patients has a surprising effect on Sunny. Along with Cole, the grandson of one of the residents, she begins to see that the residents don't have much more choice about their lives than she does: what they eat, how they are treated by staff, even what they watch on television. So Sunny does what she can to make the residents happy -- even if she has to sometimes break the rules to do it.

When tragedy strikes at Paradise, Sunny's left to make the decision about whether or not to honour a promise that Cole made to his grandmother about her life...and her death.

Sylvia McNicoll wrote her first book, Blueberries and Whipped Cream, as a project for a college writing course in order to explore a tragedy that occurred in her own high school. She went on to teach creative writing at that same college for nine years, edit a parenting magazine for another eight years and write 29 more novels for a variety of age groups.
Most acclaimed are her three dog guide fostering stories: Bringing Up Beauty, Beauty Returns and A Different Kind of Beauty, which won and were nominated for many children's choice awards. Last Chance for Paris, her adventure book set on the ice fields of Columbia, explored ecological issues with glaciers before climate warming became a popular issue.
Her recent novel, Crush. Candy. Corpse, tells the story about a teen on trial for the manslaughter of an Alzheimer's patient. Reviewers and bloggers have declared it a must read for all high school students. In her thirtieth book Death Goes Viral, already a blockbuster hit in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Sylvia returns to the theme of life and death and the values our own mortality inspires in us.

Sylvia McNicoll's profile page

• Short-listed, SYRCA Snow Willow Award
• Short-listed, Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
• Short-listed, Arthur Ellis Award, Best Juvenile/YA Mystery Category
• Short-listed, Red Maple Fiction Award
• Commended, One of the Year's Best -- Resource Links
• Commended, Best Books for Kids & Teens -- Canadian Children's Book Centre
• Commended, OLA Best Bets 2012

"Sunny is a strong, realistic, witty character with whom the intended audience will readily identify... The portrayal of Alzheimer's patients is extraordinarily well done...The compassion of Sunny, Cole and Gillian will linger long in the minds of the intended reader...The dialogue is witty and engaging, reflective of today's world, moving the plot along smartly and revealing character intuitively...The themes of compassion for the elderly, euthanasia and falling in love will resonate with the intended audience." Highly Recommended.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“Crush.Candy.Corpse. packs a punch. Hands down, this is a book that should be required reading for students. McNicoll weaves such a heart wrenching story that you?re forced to contemplate your own beliefs, to question parts of yourself that are easily pushed away and rarely confronted.”

Mallory Thorpe, coverboundbookie.blogspot.ca

“The narrative is brisk and engaging and presents an intriguing debate on assisted suicide, quality versus quantity of life, and the treatment of seniors with Alzheimer's.”

Shameless Magazine

"The book casts [Sunny as a typical teen in many respects, with all the powers of observation and all the daily struggles with the distractions of everyday life in adolescence... a good, solid examination of an important ethical topic for teens to consider."

VOYA

"McNicoll expertly combines three different narratives and works on multiple levels to provide us with various versions of the same story so that we are compelled to look at all points of view and draw our own conclusions."
Recommended.

Canadian Children's Book News

"An absorbing and provocative book"

FernFolio

"Sunny is a realistic and believable protagonist experiencing authentic events and responding with genuine reactions."

The Deakin Review of Children's Literature

"Crush. Candy. Corpse. is a strong narrative that engages the readers to contemplate some big philosophical issues surrounding health care, assisted suicide and the fine lines of right and wrong."

Keen Readers

"captivating...Sylvia McNicoll gets Sunny's voice perfect, introducing the narrator as a teen who can make questionable decisions (as we all do when inexperienced) but who has the capacity to see beyond her initial assessments and amend her own actions and beliefs accordingly."

CanLit for Little Canadians

"...fast-paced and powerful. From the touching dedication to the unravelling of the forty-first hour, my attention was held....McNicoll has created a character that many students will relate to." Rated E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!

Resource Links

"The book follows high school student Sonja (Sunny) Ehret as she stands trial for manslaughter. Every chapter alternates between last year (Sunny serving volunteers hours on an Alzheimer's ward), and this year (Sunny's manslaughter trial). So just how are the two connected” Well you have to pick up this uh-mazing book to find out! I actually read this book in less than a day as I could just not put it down."

http://booksintransit.wordpress.com/

Crush. Candy. Corpse.

Stories are interpretations. Experience is perception. Fiction is reality. Sunny learns this the hard way in Sylvia McNicoll’s latest YA novel, Crush. Candy. Corpse. Volunteering for class credit, Sunny serves these hours in the Alzheimer’s ward of Paradise Manor. When she is charged with manslaughter for killing one of the Manor’s residents by feeding her a candy, Sunny must prove her innocence.

A seasoned YA author, McNicoll expertly combines three different narratives and works on multiple levels to provide us with various versions of the same story so that we are compelled to look at all points of view and draw our own conclusions. Although at times it feels repetitive, it does serve the story’s themes and structure well. Most chapters begin with Sunny’s trial, watching the opposing attorney spin her story. Then it shifts to Sunny’s journal, a short paragraph that acts as an introduction to a flashback sequence where we find out what really (maybe) happened.

Like Mrs. Johnson, the head of Paradise Manor who jumps to conclusions about Sunny, we, too, are led to believe that, with her pink hair, felonious boyfriend and rebellious nature, Sunny is troubled and possibly guilty. McNicoll becomes Sunny’s character witness, slowly building a case, proving that not only is Sunny a very sympathetic and compassionate person, but also that there were some extraordinary circumstances that factored into her unusual behaviour that day. However, as Sunny is our storyteller, we must decide whether or not we believe her and if the jury’s verdict was indeed just.

Crush. Candy. Corpse

Last year Sunny was forced to serve 40 hours as a volunteer on an Alzheimer’s ward. This year she’s on trial for the manslaughter of a 75-year-old Alzheimer’s patient. We learn what really happened in the forty-first hour through Sunny’s volunteer journal, the trial and her personal narration.