Winnie Nash Is Not Your Sunshine
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this powerful novel by an award-winning author, 12-year-old Winnie Nash is forced to live with her grandma for the summer and finds herself torn between her family’s secrets and the joy of celebrating Pride.
Winnie Nash never used to have so many secrets.
But then she agreed to stay with her grandma for the summer so her mom can take care of her health during her latest pregnancy. Now Winnie plays card games with Grandma’s friends (boring), joins the senior citizen book club (fine, even if no one thinks she’ll read the books), and absolutely does not talk about her mom’s sad days (she never used to be so sad…).
The biggest secret is that her parents asked Winnie not to mention she’s gay to Grandma. And there’s a really cute girl who also hangs out with the senior citizens. What happens if Grandma notices just how much Winnie likes Pippa? The longer Winnie hides the truth, the more she longs to be surrounded by her LGBTQ+ community and the more she feels like the only place she can be herself is at New York City’s Pride celebration. Winnie decides she’ll get to Pride, one way or another. But is this just one more secret she has to keep?
An ALA Rainbow List Selection
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Twelve-year-old spitfire Winnifred Maude Nash feels that she's under a lot of pressure. She must save up her smiles for her depressed mother, who is currently undergoing a high-risk pregnancy after several miscarriages. Winnie is simultaneously compelled to keep her feelings bottled up inside and not share them with the world, and to hide her attraction to girls from her grandmother, with whom she's staying for the summer at the Jersey Shore. What Winnie really wants is to attend N.Y.C. Pride and be among people she believes will understand her. Despite her best efforts to stay aloof, she befriends gregarious, pretty Pippa Lai and "chubby," easygoing Lucia Delgado. Now, Winnie must balance her desire for companionship and inclusion with the secrets churning within her. In this summery, heartfelt tale of change and transformation, Melleby (Camp QUILTBAG) tackles themes of family dynamics, queer identity, and quiet trauma. It's also a nuanced depiction of emotions writ large—Winnie is anything but subtle in her approach to big feelings, an element of her personality that shines brightly and informs how she experiences the world, cementing herself as an indomitable tween protagonist. Winnie reads as white; supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 9–12.
