Call Me Sunflower

by Miriam Spitzer Franklin

"A moving and realistic story . . . Sunflower shines with emotion, convincing dialogue, and relatable characters." — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunny Beringer hates her first name—her real first name—Sunflower. And she hates that her mom has suddenly left behind her dad and uprooted their family miles away from New Jersey to North Carolina just so she can pursue some fancy degree. Sunny has to live with a grandmother she barely knows, and she’s had to leave her beloved cat and all her friends behind. And no one else seems to think anything is wrong.

So she creates “Sunny Beringer’s Totally Awesome Plan for Romance”—a list of sure-fire ways to make her parents fall madly in love again,

Send Mom flowers from a “Secret Admirer” to make her dad jealous and make him regret letting them move so far away.

Make a playlist of his favorite love songs—the mushier the better—and make sure it’s always playing in the car.

Ask them about the good old days when they first fell in love.

But while working on a photo album guaranteed to make Mom change her mind and rush them right back home, Sunny discovers a photo—one that changes everything.

Sunny’s family, the people she thought she could trust most in the world, have been keeping an enormous secret from her. And she’ll have to reconcile her family’s past and present, or she’ll lose everything about their future.

Genres: Middle Grade, Adoption, Childrens, Contemporary, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2017

Reviews

[PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sunny doesn’t want to leave her father back in New Jersey when she and her mom move to North Carolina and plans to get them back together. She ends up lying to potential new friends and her family.

CALL ME SUNFLOWER is my least favorite of Miriam Spitzer Franklin. It will appeal to adopted children and those with unconventional families. Sunny is an okay character who seems immature for age eleven. She’s slow to pick up that her mom isn’t telling the whole truth, so I understood why lying was the easy way out for her. Her mom won’t win any Mother of the Year awards.

A mild recommendation for CALL ME SUNFLOWER.

[Sea Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't lie: books that take place in my home state are a huge draw for me. Living in the politically-dubious but naturally beautiful state of North Carolina, I am graced with plenty of choices. Thanks, Sarah Dessen and Nicholas Sparks!

Why so many authors come from here, choose to live here, or deign to write about this place may always be a mystery to me, but it's one reason I read the hot-off-the-press middle grade release from Skyhorse Publishing, Call Me Sunflower, by Miriam Spitzer Franklin.

NC setting, NC author, and a premise both hilarious and heartwarming? Sold.

The protagonist, Sunny, is a spunky, imaginative girl just starting sixth grade. As if middle school wasn't hard enough, Sunny has to deal with the fact that her family, in her eyes, is falling apart. With all of the antics involved in her Totally Awesome Plan to reunite her parents, like setting her mom up for a surprise makeover and photo shoot so she can send nice pictures back to her dad, I imagined this story would be playful. It wasn't quite the laugh-inducing light read I was hoping for, but it definitely had some highlights.

Call Me Sunflower delves into some seriously unique ground for a middle grade novel! Sunny is a bold and independent thinker, which not only leads to the infamous Awesome Plan, but also means she chooses to engage with things that matter to her, even if it means going against the grain. She joins the Odyssey of the Mind team and explores animal rights activism. One of her Odyssey of the Mind teammates is a conscientious young vegan. I had never fathomed reading a book with Odyssey of the Mind in it, let alone sixth grade social activists on top, and I love how Sunny and her friends set an example of creativity, critical thinking, and conscious life choices being valuable things for young people to pursue.

The secret behind Sunny's family situation caught me completely by surprise, and it's safe to say I would never, ever have guessed it. It's a bit of a shocker, but after the dramatic reveal, Franklin handles the unusual family arrangement with grace and lets Sunny process it and come to understand that her family is wonderful, no matter what shape it takes.

The book did stumble into a few genre tropes: there was a dash of the pretty, popular mean girl set up against the foil of unpopular "weird" kids who were all much smarter, more interesting, and more redeemable than the "normal" kids. I also had a pet peeve with the adult characters: every adult who wasn't a teacher had the profession of "store owner." Book store owner, health foods store owner, clothing store owner, etc. Some of the stores were related to the plot, which is fine, but how many store owners do you know? The type of store was also used to stereotype or define the adult or family attached to it.

Call Me Sunflower is as creative as its protagonist, and carries a lot of good messages for kids in the target audience. It doesn't have a ton to offer for older readers, but would be a great book to get for a young and independent reader in your life!

I received this book free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[S.M. Boren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to #kidlitexchange for the review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟Call Me Sunflower by Miriam Spitzer Franklin. Sunflower is an eleven year old girl struggling with middle school issues. She hates her name and prefers to be called Sunny. Her mother has chosen to pursue her Masters Degree and moved the girls away from their Dad, in New Jersey,  into their Grandmothers house in South Carolina. Sunny is in a new school with new people and knows no one. She needs to come up with a plan to get her parents back together and return to New Jersey. She sends her Mom to a make over and photo shoot in an attempt to put her parents back together. Sunny is very strong willed and independent. She is angry and lashes out at people around her. But she soon realizes that her life before now will not be as she dreamed and the bonds of family and friends is stronger than the distance between them. I particularly enjoyed that Odessey of the Mind was included in this read. All of my children participated in this extracurricular activity and it is way under rated so I was excited to see it mentioned in a book! Review also posted on Instagram @jasonnstacie, Library Thing, Go Read, Amazon, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

[Brooks Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call Me Sunflower is one of those rare books that settles into your very core and stays with you long after you finish the last page. Sunny's story will captivate your heart, oftentimes break it, but ultimately heal it together with a warm hug filled with the promise of hope.

[Izze Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book because you almost feel like your in the same room as Sunny. The author describes the setting very well. Sunny is trying to make her parents fall in love again, but not everything goes as planned.

[Esther LeeAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah.....what should I be saying to this? Vegan? People are cruel if they make animals into fur coats, and leather handbags, and what not? I have nothing against this, it was just mentioned continuously.
I couldn't relate to Sunny that much ether. She was just an odd character. It was also for a younger age range, which is probably why I didn't enjoy it that much.
I probably will never read this again. It was worth the shot though; it was a little funny.

[Scarlett Tully · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love unexpected plot twists especially when they are very important and you never would have guessed them.

[Wendy MacKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had an opportunity to read the ARC and I loved this book! A gem of a story!

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunflower doesn't like her name very much and prefers to be called Sunny. Sunny and her sister Autumn used to live in New Jersey, but as their mother wanted to go back to university they left Scott, their dad, behind and moved in with their grandmother in North Carolina. Sunny misses her father and her friends. She doesn't know much about her grandmother, but as she sells fur Sunny isn't interested in finding out more, because she thinks it's cruel. Sunny has a plan to make her mother and Scott fall in love again, so they can go back to the life she used to love. Will she succeed or are things not exactly as she was let to believe and what will Sunny do when she finds out the truth about her family?

Call Me Sunflower is a beautiful emotional story. Sunny doesn't like living with her grandmother and going to a new school is daunting. She isn't sure how to make friends when she doesn't want to stay, she doesn't know how to have fun without her best friend and father and she misses her old life. My heart ached for her when I read her plans to get her old life back. Sunny has problems finding her place at school and has the tough decision to make if she wants to hang out with the popular crowd or the kids she really likes. Everything is different and she isn't coping too well. When Sunny finds out that things she should have known have been kept from her she's even more confused. She's on a journey to find herself again after everything she's been through and I admired her for trying to make the best of every situation and for fighting for what she believes in.

Miriam Spitzer Franklin has a wonderful warm writing style. She vividly describes everything Sunny is feeling, both the good and the bad. I could easily picture Sunny's plans, her grief and her hope. Change is always difficult, especially without understanding every aspect of it, which is something Miriam Spitzer Franklin writes about in a fantastic empathic way. I loved Call Me Sunflower, it's a stunning moving story about a special girl and it has plenty of different layers. I highly recommend this brilliant book to both children and adults.

[Liz Friend · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story: Unhappy that her mom has uprooted the family (and left father figure Scott behind), Sunflower launches her master plan to reignite her parents' romance and get them back together--and the family back to New Jersey. As each part of her plan goes awry, Sunny is forced to come to the conclusion that sometimes, you just have to play the hand you're dealt. But how do you make it fun?

June Cleaver's ratings: Language G; Violence G; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse G; Magic & the occult G; GLBT content G; adult themes (divided families; cruelty of using animals for fur) PG; overall rating G.

Liz's comments: I eventually found Sunny's inability to ever think about other people's feelings to be really annoying (although maybe that's how 12-year-old girls really are?). Even though each part of her plan eventually fails, that never seems to cause her to reflect; she just bolts headlong into her next mishap. Yikes.

[Louisa Dang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this middle-grade novel about a girl moving to a new state with her mother and younger sister. At first, we don't know much about Sunny's parents -- she calls her dad "Scott," and gradually we find out that she was adopted. Sunny and her sister are in the dark about why her parents are no longer living together -- the explanation given is that their mother wants to attend graduate school, and they'll only be living in NC with their grandmother for two years. Sunny hatches a plan to leave NC and get her parents back home -- to get everything back to the way it was, in other words -- but things turn out to be more complicated than she ever imagined. The author does a great job of conveying the feeling of being back in middle school -- the scary cafeteria smells, the snooty girl with the perfect hair, the painful awkwardness of the "geeky" kids... It felt a little too real! :)

[Rainy Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and light read for me. Call Me Sunflower is about 11-year-old Sunny, who hates her full name "Sunflower", and was trying to get her mom and dad back together and trying to get back home in New Jersey with her Sunny's Super Stupendous Plan.

I think it's quite a cliche story. A new girl moving away from home, having trouble making friends at new school, having troubles of her own and then in the end, worked everything out anyway. I wouldn't be surprised at all because this book is for young readers. I quite enjoyed it anyway. It's just I can't believe that this is Sunny's personalities. She's only 11, but I felt like she's a bit older than that. It's hard picturing her as kid when I read through this book. She felt almost 16 or 17 to me.

I like the story line. I like Sunny and her plans. I like her cats, Stellaluna and Ripple. Overall this book is quite okay, for a light read. PS: I like the cat's name, Stellaluna. Sounds so elegant.

[Lucy Annis-Bercier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call me sunflower is the first book I have read by Miriam Spitzer Franklin and I really like her style and I think she interprets a 12 year old girl very well. It’s about a girl named Sunflower or Sunny which is what she prefers because Sunflower is a very unique name, a bit too unique for her. She is forced to move all the way across the country, away from her almost dad Scott, her cat Bellaluna and all her friends. Her grandmother sells animal fur and she’s angry at her for that. On top of all that, she discovers some surprising family news and is struggling with friends. I though that this book was really cool and interesting to read. I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction and drama genres. There was a lot of parts that I never excepted once and every time a chapter was over, I wanted to read the next one.

[Jo-ann Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to @kidlitexchange (#partner) for the review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Call Me Sunflower is the story of a young girl named Sunflower who prefers to be called Sunny. She has recently moved to her Grandmother’s house with her mom and her sister Autumn so that her mom can go back to school. Sunny is not happy about the move, or that she had to leave her dad and cat behind. She isn’t happy about living with her Grandmother who likes everything to be very neat, and who owns a shop that sells furs.
Sunny struggles to make friends when she first starts middle school. She deals with common friendship issues, such as trying to find a seat at lunch, wanting to be accepted by others, and how to deal with people who make fun of people that are your friend. When she becomes involved in Odyssey of the Mind at school, she begins to feel a bit better and starts making some friends. Sunny also struggles with being separated from her dad, and tries coming up with plans to bring her parents back together. As the plans progress, so does Sunny’s need to lie - to her mom and her friend. During this time, a family secret is revealed which adds to the inner turmoil that Sunny is dealing with. If her mom has lied to her, then it must be okay for her to lie, too. When Sunny decides to participate in a protest against animal cruelty in front of her grandmother’s shop, and is interviewed by the local news, things reach a breaking point. Sunny begins to learn the consequences of her actions and must now figure out how to mend the relationship with her grandmother and her friend.
I found Sunny’s character easy to relate to. Moving is hard for anyone, especially for children, and children who have to leave family members behind. The problems of making friends, telling the truth, and dealing with family issues are common among middle school children and also things that they can connect with. Sunny learns some valuable lessons from her experiences, which would be helpful for children reading this story. A very enjoyable read!

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm conflicted with this one. I liked how the adolescent and her thoughts and struggles were presented. I feel like the parents didn't consider her needs, and so many people fall into that trap. It's hard to consider a child's perspective when you are focused on fixing adult problems. However, I didn't like that the solution for her was just to believe that her father figure loved her no matter how far apart they lived or how few times they got to see each other. Yes, these hard situations happen, and I don't think that the solution had to be the mother and father figure move into the same house even though they didn't love each other, just so the kids had him more securely, but, just believing he loves her, despite his unavailability is not going to solve it, especially for a 12 year old.
I wish there was more conversation about how the situation is crappy for the kids, how they don't deserve it, how they need more security, and how the parent figures are trying to work toward that security, meeting the kids needs, and improving all the lives of those involved.
Anyway, I felt like it ended a bit abruptly and without a solution an adolescent needs.
Clean rating: PG. There is some talk of animal cruelty and some themes difficult for young kids to understand or relate to. There are some political stances that parents should be aware of if their child reads this book. Vegan, vegetarian, anti-animal cruelty, a single mother adopting children. Not that any of these things are bad, but good to know about and informed so as to answer questions that may come.

[Carrie Westmoreland Kurtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call Me Sunflower is a pretty good middle grade novel that, when the plot twist came to light, caught me completely off guard! I won't say what it was because I certainly don't want to ruin the book for anyone else, but I really didn't see it coming! Not at all.

There were several things that I enjoyed about this book. First of all, for a middle grade book, the storyline had a lot of deep, impactful subjects and they were all written very well. I felt so bad for Sunny, having to move from her dad, cat, and friends isn't an easy thing. Especially at that age.

Something that didn't sit well with me was some of Sunny's behavior. Maybe it's because I am a mom that it stood out to me so much. Another thing I didn't like has to do with the big family secret. I really don't understand how a family could keep something like that a secret. I wouldn't do that to my children.

I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others. As a matter of fact, I already have! My daughter just finished reading it and she definitely liked it!

3.5 stars

*Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[American Mensa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call Me Sunflower is an interesting book, with many details and situations. Sunny, or Sunflower, moves to a different state, away from her father. Her, her mom, and her sister stay at their grandmother’s house. Sunny really wants her father and mother to get back together, so she writes down bunches of ideas to make her father come back. When all of them fail, she doesn’t give up. My favorite part, is when she tried to tell her dad that her mom was very sad, so he needed to send her cucumbers, for a spa. I thought that this book was a great read, and would recommend it for ages 7 and up. Really any age would like this book, because of how silly and fun it is. Great read!
Review by Sofia H, age 12, Denver Mensa

[Lauren Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call Me Sunflower is a story of adventure. Sunflower, also called Sunny, has to move from New Jersey to North Carolina to live with her grandmother. Sunny doesn't exactly like moving in with her grandmother and does not like moving to a new school. Sunny has a hard time making new friends. She makes a creative plan to get her Mom and her "Dad" (Scott) back together so she, her Mom, and her sister Autumn, can move back to New Jersey.
I would recommend this book for all ages. I loved Call Me Sunflower because of all the in-depth description of Sunny's feelings. I also love the bold character of Sunny. Everyone should read this book!

Lauren, age 12

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upper elementary age and middle grade students will enjoy this story of 6th grader, Sunny, who has moved with her mother and sister to live with her grandmother. Sunny wants to move back home to where her father lives and she plots and plans ways to get her parents back together. When she learns that her parents have been lying to her all along, Sunny decides that she needs to make sure she gets home to her dad. Along the way she learns lessons about friendship, family, and life.

[Vio Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love sunnyyy 😥 its really show that sunny wanted her mom and scott to going back together. But guys the plot twist is unpredictable

Maybe this book more suitable in middle grade more than young adult. The english is pretty easy for me, i finished this book only 3 days, while usually i finished english book in 1 week

I also like this books is bring up animal rights topic, fur free day and also vegan lifestyle

Overall i liked this book, such a fun read in my quarantine days hahaha

[Two BookWorms Blog · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Sunny really wants to do is to get her parents back together, so she develops “Sunny’s Super-Stupendous Plan to Get Mom and Dad Back Together.” It includes playing on the feelings of both parents because she is sure the love still exists between them. She needs them to be a family once more!

For the full review: https://twobookwormsblog.wordpress.co...

[Caroline Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fun, happy, and shows you how children deal with making friends and hard times in their lives. Being a friend to this author, I am pretty bias, but this book is a fun read, that lots of people will enjoy. I would say this book is geared towards more of a elementary- middle school age. Although, it is fun for every age and I’m sure you would enjoy.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for Call Me Sunflower. I loved the first half of the book. Sunny's family situation was intriguing. Sunny's attempts to make friends at a new school felt genuine. The animal rights conflict was a nice touch too. The second half of the book was less plausible and Sunny's choices felt inconsistent. Upon reflection, I don't feel like I knew any of the characters very well.

[k · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. It was good! It was a good read. It was a bit of a fast-paced book that keep me until the end. I recommend it to people 8 and older. My reason for that is, is because kids possibly younger that 8 years old might not understand much of the main character’s struggles and story. I also liked how there were a few plot twists in the book. Overall, a pretty good book in my opinion 😊

[Anis Zulaikha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunny is immature and i understand why she did what she did. her feelings are valid but at the same time, i wish she would have understand her mom’s dream to do a degree in Bennettsville. also that maybe if mom and Scott be honest earlier, she would’ve understand.

[julianna ☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 i’m actually so sad i finished this so fast. middle grade is just so good especially when it’s written by miriam spitzer franklin. extraordinary is probably one of my favorite books of all time so i had high standards and while this didn’t blow me away it definitely didn’t disappoint

[Issraa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried so much reading this book like when sunny found out it wasn’t her real dad and that they were just twins that stuff crushed me I’ve read this two times and if I could read it again for the first time I would 🩷

[Katie Atmakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so incredible i love every page of it the author of it is so talented!!

[Melody Delgado · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has created a likeable main character and has also portrayed realistic adults. This was a fun read. Can't wait to read more from this author.

[Kristi Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Book about a girl who finds out about her past and learns to deal with her future. Nice, clean middle school read.

Sex: None
Violence: None
Language: None