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.
Buy Sunny Days Inside at amazon.ca or find your local bookstore.
- Nominated for the 2023 Magnolia Book Award
- A 2022 White Ravens Selection from the International Youth Library
- Nominated for the 2022 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award
- Nominated for the 2022/2023 Red Cedar Award
- Nominated for the 2023 Rocky Mountain Book Award
- Nominated for a 2022/2023 Chocolate Lily Award
- Nominated for the 2022 Diamond Willow Award
- A Forest of Reading 2022 Summer Reading List suggestion
- A Bank Street College Best Books of the Year 2022
- A CBC Books Best Middle Grade and YA Book of 2021
- A Winnipeg Free Press Best Book of 2021 Books for Young Readers
- 35 Canadian middle-grade books to watch for in fall 2021 (CBC)
- A 49th Shelf Top-Grade Can-Lit for the Classroom Pick
Download the Sunny Days Inside Study Guide.
Read Caroline’s CBC Books interview.
Praise for Sunny Days Inside
“A kaleidoscopic view of how the kids in one urban apartment building experience Covid-19…While each vignette is an entertaining short story, it’s the connections among the kids that make this a brilliant read. Their support of one another and the adults in the building portrays a positive side to lockdowns and quarantines while not sugarcoating the deadliness of Covid-19. The climactic final chapter brings all of the children—and Mrs. Watts—together for a slightly dangerous but informative and emotionally satisfying conclusion. Racial and cultural diversity among the characters is conveyed but not explored; one girl and her father are Deaf. A compelling montage of stories that will leave readers wanting to know more about each character.”
— Kirkus (Starred Review)
“This short story collection follows the young residents of an apartment building during the early stages of the pandemic. By turns poignant, funny, and heartrending, each story carries a distinct voice, and the diverse cast represents a range of backgrounds and abilities. Bolstering themes of connectedness and community, the stories initially stand alone but are satisfyingly intertwined by the end.”
— School Library Journal
“There’s a lot of turmoil that comes in the transitional years between childhood and adolescence, but there are satisfactions, too. It’s between the ages of 10 and 13, for instance, that most children begin to enjoy some independence. That’s what should be happening for the kids in Caroline Adderson’s collection of linked stories… Instead Covid-19 has locked them down… Readers ages 9-12 are likely to find themselves revisiting their own days of lockdown as the kids in the book deal with boredom and fear and parents who, amid the ambulance sirens, are not always models of resilience. But they’ll also vicariously experience acts of ingenuity, kindness and even (clandestine) autonomy in this understanding read.”
“Adderson does not shy away from the more difficult subjects to which many children have been exposed over the past two years: immune-compromised loved ones, financial precariousness, and the deteriorating mental health of a parent. She also takes the time to illuminate the minutiae that loomed large in the lives of those of us confined to our homes. Most importantly, she 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. Using the metaphor of the apartment building as the scaffolding for her book, she reminds readers of the manner in which we were all isolated within our own family cells. She balances this observation by slowly linking up the various characters and stories, demonstrating the ways in which people have found connection and support during this difficult time.”
— Canadian Children’s Book News
“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.”
“Caroline Adderson is one of a few writers who is able to move seamlessly between writing acclaimed books for adults and writing beloved books for young readers, and her newest collection of short stories for middle grade readers is a fantastic addition to her stable of great reads…. Sunny Days Inside is set during the pandemic (the “grownup virus”) and explores quarantine and lockdown through the eyes of the children living in one particular apartment building. Amidst strange new rules and restrictions, each kid reacts differently to the stress of pandemic life. From running laps on apartment balconies to starting up a business renting out the family dog, the stories weave together funny, heartfelt, and complex moments and emotions. And as the children in the stories react to the strain on their parents, grandparents, and older siblings, a valuable portrait emerges of not only the pandemic experience but how adult upheaval of any kind can impact kids.”
“Aimed at middle-grade readers, it addresses the issue of sheltering in place — especially from the viewpoint of school-age children deprived of the chance to get together with friends and classmates. Adderson cleverly focuses on a single walk-up apartment building and its inhabitants, giving us various young characters and their family situations — as well as the elderly occupant of a ground-floor apartment who ultimately ends up with COVID. There’s humour in these stories (bad haircuts, hoarded toilet paper, and a boy who rents his dog out to neighbours so they, too, can be allowed trips outside), but there’s also pain and sadness. Parents and kids alike feel stressed and tearful; a couple of fathers lose their jobs and one, in particular, goes to pieces. Kids in the building get acquainted from their balconies; a dozen of them plan an escape in the final chapter, sneaking out one night to roam the quiet streets… Such friendships will see us through this time as well.”
“One of the first books that mirror the present pandemic era from a young person’s point of view, Vancouver author Caroline Adderson’s Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories does a great job of capturing the tremendous upheaval in childrens’ lives and the resiliency with which they have met the challenges. This series of eight related stories will not only affect but inspire you… Highly recommended for readers 8-12.”
“This is a powerful and compelling book that captures the complex and intersectional experiences of the pandemic through children and young people’s perspectives. It centers the many individual experiences as well as how they fit into the collective local, broader and global experience of the pandemic… By inviting us inside the apartment door, the lived experiences are humanized and as we learn the intricacies we build empathy, compassion and a deeper understanding.The message of the book is delivered in an accessible, age appropriate and funny way. While we read the stories we have the opportunity to affirm as well as expand our experiences. This book shows us the ongoing hardships of the pandemic but also the beautiful strengths of a community through connections that are built. We are given the opportunity and space to make sense of our experiences by providing accessible language and examples. A very timely book, that is responsive, relevant and contextual for our current circumstances.”
“Caroline Adderson has always written powerful stories (e.g., Very Serious Children, 2007; Middle of Nowhere, 2012; Norman, Speak!, 2014), though with a smidgen of humour that never distracts from serious issues like abandonment, parenting, foster care, and now COVID-19. Told from a variety of perspectives, the pandemic is viewed as an adventure, a source of fear and anxiety, an opportunity, or even a challenge. We’ve got kids who worry about their parents, who become superheroes, and those who gain perspective on their pre-pandemic lives. They are all different, as are their stories, but somehow young readers will recognize every one them and their issues, sure to see themselves within. These middle-graders are shy and athletic, Deaf and hearing, silly and serious, anxious and confident. Whether annoyed with a younger or older sibling, cooperating with working or non-working parents, cheering the lack of haircuts, or finding new ways to communicate without congregating, these kids are living through this pandemic. In fact, they’re staring it in the face, mask securely on and two metres apart, and reclaiming their lives, albeit new configurations of them.”
“Each of the short stories deals with a family who must cope with new rules and forced time at home with parents and siblings It is significant to know that this book was published in 2021, in the midst of the Pandemic… There are, and will be many examples of children’s literature that dig into the events of COVID-19 (Outside In by Deborah Underwood (picture book), Don’t Stand So Close to Me by Eric Walters, New From Here by Kelly Yang. (fiction). Sunny Days Inside with its linked short stories is a special collection that many students will identify with. Bravo!”
—Larry Swartz, Educational Consultant
“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?…Who will read these stories in a few years? In a decade? Will the pandemic through-line in these stories, and the covid experience fall away in some hoped-for distant memory — we’d all like it to be distant memory. In answer, I consider the books I read as a child, often about the Great Depression, years of the 1930s, then books about the 1960s and 70s, the years of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., and other challenging times. Writing about, and setting stories in such times, has a significant place in literature for children — for all, really. 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.”
“As I read through this book, I remembered how I fell in love with reading fiction novels about intertwined relationships and character’s dreams. In this tween fiction, each chapter is the pandemic story of one young person, all neighbours in an apartment building. The simplicity yet inner complexity of the relationships and how each family navigates the “grown-up virus” made me reflect on all the different perspectives we had as we navigated the first few weeks of social distance and lockdowns. I imagine this book will be read in years to come, by kids who can’t fathom keeping away from friends and family, missing sunny days. These stories, although fiction, are the narratives of so many. I really enjoyed reading this and escaping into the drama of kids and young adulthood.
“What can kids do when the “grownup virus” hits? Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories by Caroline Adderson is a collection of linked short stories featuring different children living in the same apartment complex during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The stories feature different ways that children helped their families during these difficult times, such as a young entrepreneur helping to pay their family’s bills by renting their dog out for walks. In another story, two young girls give their Mom a much-deserved at-home vacation after she’s forced to cancel a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I appreciate these stories because they show how children can be heroes every day through kindness and thoughtfulness. I believe my students will also benefit from seeing some of their own pandemic experiences mirrored back at them.”
“Poignant, tender stories blend with lighter or even humorous ones, each recapturing the reality of the emotions surrounding the early days of the pandemic as children and their parents face isolation. They reflect fear of the disease, (exacerbated by the increased activity at the nearby hospital) and loss of normalcy in everyday lives, part of which is the observation of parental distress caused by the situation. The wise stories also capture the irrepressible adaptability of children and their ingenuity in finding hope in their confinement. While stories are about individual families, characters from other stories intersect providing that sense of being part of a community that was so prevalent early in the pandemic.
Beautifully written, each child narrator has their own credible voice, and the portrayal of adults, such as elderly Mrs. Watts or Connor’s dad, are realistic and subtly drawn. Children will enjoy this wise and entertaining book all the more for the recognizable pandemic setting with which they are all familiar and for the optimism it provides. Highly Recommended”
“The collection depicts how children—despite their own fear, frustration, and anxiety—find ways to make the best of what they are given… In the background of their whimsy and magic, we witness everyday survival and inevitably see our past selves in their ways of getting by. These children play games to pass the time, bang pots to celebrate health care workers, see their parents’ personal strife and help the best they can.
Despite being set during a time of intense fear and suffering, there is something inexplicably charming about this book and its players. Sunny Days Inside reaffirms our connection to one another, and captures a very specific period of time where our world became impossibly small, but we still managed to find wonder within it.”
“The stories written for this new book by Caroline Adderson are appealing, as well as telling… The connections made between the young people living in the building are especially moving and make this quite the remarkable book for many middle grade readers. They provide the support needed by their new friends, as well as the adults in their building. Of course, there were pretty amazing things happening while in lockdown and these stories take a look at how some of them may have played out. The final story, called Imagine, is a perfect ending for these linked stories. “
“Seven short stories each feature a different point of view from the kids living in one apartment block; three are in a boy’s point of view. An eighth chapter then brings all the points of views and children together.
More than clever, it’s consistently funny – a real lift to any reader. Though it’s a little more middle-grade than young adult, any age will love these stories, which are less about the pandemic than they are about everyday folks in extraordinary circumstances, finding unusual, clever, hilarious ways to cope. That makes this fiction, unlike other pandemic books, stand out as timeless.
Kudos to the author for including a hearing-impaired child (and the balcony mate who learns sign language to communicate with her). And for merging all these highly original characters at the end. This is a highly recommended read.”
— YA Dude
“Caroline Adderson has written a whip-smart, heartfelt, and humorous middle grade novel that takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were having to stay inside and isolate ourselves… Themes such a resiliency, hope, understanding, and patience are all found throughout Sunny Days Inside. Readers young and old will delight in the adventures that each of the children have. Sunny Days Inside is well written and while each of the stories are separate from one another, they are all connected; neighbours are mentioned throughout, and of course they all live in the same apartment building.”