Sunshine is the true story of a younger man discovering pleasure amid sorrow at a summer time camp for seriously-ill youngsters.

Sunshine: How One Camp Taught Me about Life, Loss of life, and Hope by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Graphix (Scholastic), 2023, 240 pages.

Studying Degree: Teen, ages 12-15

Advisable for: ages 12-up

Sunshine and Disappointment

“Nearly everybody who asks concerning the expertise appears to have the identical knee-jerk response: It should have been so unhappy.” The “expertise,” which modified the author-illustrator’s life, was the primary time he labored at a camp for youths with life-threatening sicknesses. After surviving a fraught childhood together with his neglectful, heroin-addicted mother (see our evaluate of Hey Kiddo), Jarrett discovered a secure dwelling together with his grandparents and now attends Holy Title Excessive Faculty. Yearly, six college students are chosen to function volunteers at Camp Sunshine, a one-week program for critically-ill children and their households. Jarrett is up for the expertise, however doesn’t suspect the way it will change him.

Every volunteer is assigned one camper and one household. Jarrett is disconcerted to be paired up with Diego, a 13-year-old with mind most cancers and a nasty angle—how can they relate to one another? Alternatively, the household with whom he’s to take a seat and help at mealtimes varieties an instantaneous bond by way of Eric, an insanely glad child with leukemia. Eric’s bubbly good spirits distinction with Diego’s sullenness, however Jarrett manages to bond with each of them. Over an intense week, stuffed with challenges, small victories, heartfelt talks underneath the celebs, and one flip contained in the Chippy (camp mascot) costume, he finds unsuspected depths in himself and others, and even a which means in struggling. As considered one of his chaperones observes, “The humorous factor about being in service to others is that the maths of all of it doesn’t add up. Irrespective of how a lot work and power you place into these weeks, you get again far more than you ever put in.”

Struggling and Service

That’s a Christian idea, as is significant struggling, although Christ is rarely talked about. The distinction with right now’s ethic of avoiding ache in any respect prices is apparent. “Eric’s and Diego’s lives had been quick. However the ramifications of their time affected everybody who got here in touch with them, sending ripples effectively past the months and years we had with them.” And never all of the campers’ lives ended early; others survived and went on to dwell productive lives: “Their ache, endured throughout childhood, gave option to glad, fantastic adulthoods.” As Jarrett’s did. This memoir of his life-changing summer time is touching and affirmative.

Concerns:

  • Some language; just a few makes use of of delicate profanity, such because the d- phrase and h- phrase. Not almost as a lot as in Hey Kiddo.
  • In a late-night dialog, God’s will comes up, which one of many campers dismisses as a “crappy plan.” An sincere opinion, however missing context.

Total Score: 4.5 (out of 5)

  • Worldview/ethical worth: 4
  • Inventive/literary worth: 5

Learn extra about our scores right here.

Additionally at Redeemed Reader:

  • Reflection: Is anybody attending a Christian camp this summer time? Camp director (and private buddy) Michael Guertin has ideas for fogeys on tips on how to put together for the expertise. See Bunk Beds, Backpacks, and Bibles. And a bonus: my son relates his personal life-altering expertise at Bible Camp.
  • Assessment: Don’t let summer time go by with out getting in some Outside Faculty: Mountaineering and Tenting.
  • Critiques: Two middle-grade novels about children coping with most cancers: Unstoppable and Wink. And for teenagers, ideas about The Fault in Our Stars.

We’re contributors within the Amazon LLC associates program; purchases you make by way of affiliate hyperlinks just like the one beneath might earn us a fee. Learn extra right here.