• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7

When the “grownup virus” hits, kids who live in the same apartment building must cope with strange new rules and extended time at home with parents and siblings.

And they survive brilliantly, each in their own way. Twin boys throw themselves into an independent research assignment on prehistoric people and embrace their own devolution. A budding track star is encouraged to run laps on his balcony by a neighbor who has a secret crush on him. A classroom troublemaker reaches out to a teacher when his own father begins to exhibit signs of mental illness. A young entrepreneur saves himself and his hairdresser mother from financial collapse by renting out the family dog. And a girl finds a way to communicate with her hearing-impaired neighbor so that they can spy on the rest of the building.

The stories follow the course of the pandemic, from the early measures through lockdown, as the kids in the building observe the stresses on the adults around them and use their own quirky kid ingenuity to come up with ways to make their lives better. Funny, poignant and wise, this book will long outlive even the pandemic.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5
Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

Caroline Adderson is the author of Very Serious Children (Scholastic 2007), a novel for middle readers about two brothers, the sons of clowns, who run away from the circus. I, Bruno (Orca 2007) and Bruno for Real are collections of stories for emergent readers featuring seven year-old Bruno and his true life adventures.
Caroline Adderson also writes for adults and has won two Ethel Wilson Fiction Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, as well as the 2006 Marion Engel Award given annually to an outstanding female writer in mid-career. Her numerous nominations include the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Most recently, Caroline was the Vancouver Public Library's 2008 Writer-in-Residence.
Her eight year-old son Patrick and his many friends inspire her children's writing. Caroline and her family live in Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

Caroline Adderson's profile page

• Nominated, Rocky Mountain Book Award
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award
• Short-listed, Chocolate Lily Book Awards — Novel Category
• Commended, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Best Books for Kids and Teens
• Short-listed, Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Awards, Diamond Willow Award
• Commended, Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year

Beautifully written.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

While each vignette is an entertaining short story, it’s the connections among the kids that make this a brilliant read. STARRED REVIEW

Kirkus

Kids in the building get acquainted from their balconies … Such friendships will see us through this time as well.

Postmedia

A whip-smart, heartfelt, and humorous middle grade novel.

Cloud Lake Literary

Adderson is an artist — her questions are bigger than the moment: how does a child live with adult grief — the loss of livelihood? the loss of dreams? And how do children navigate the loss of their own dreams, dreams so significant and must-have when one is young? … These stories give us models, the knowledge that we have gotten through, and we can get through again, and in the case of Sunny Days Inside, we can navigate with humour and grace.

British Columbia Review

Readers ages 9-12 are likely to find themselves revisiting their own days of lockdown … in this understanding read.

Wall Street Journal

[Adderson] has a knack for capturing the voice of each child—the way they think and speak and hope—creating believable characters with whom children can identify.

Canadian Children's Book News

This series of eight related stories will not only affect but inspire you.

Winnipeg Free Press