Crush. Candy. Corpse.

by Sylvia McNicoll

Sunny's forced into doing 40 volunteer hours at a home for Alzheimer's patients to get her high school diploma. Now one of the residents is dead, and Sunny's future is distinctly cloudy.

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.

About the Author

Sylvia McNicoll
SYLVIA McNICOLL has written twenty-three books for children. Her novels have won the Silver Birch and the Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award. In 2011 she won a City of Hamilton Book Award for YA fiction. She is currently the features editor for Today's Parent Toronto. She lives in Burlington, Ontario.

Reviews

"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."
Jane Murphy, VOYA
"...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!
Sarah Nelson, 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 Alzheimers ward), and this year (Sunnys 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."
Brianne Peters, http://booksintransit.wordpress.com

Awards

Arthur Ellis Award, Best Juvenile/YA Mystery Category
2013
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
2014
OLA Best Bets 2012
2013
Red Maple Fiction Award
2013
SYRCA Snow Willow Award
2014
Best Books for Kids & Teens -- Canadian Children's Book Centre
2012
One of the Year's Best for 2012 -- Resource Links
2012

Subjects (BISAC)

Subjects

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