First published 2018
Sunny stops running in the middle of a race. He cannot stand another step on the track where his mother once won ribbons for the mile. She died giving birth to him, and his father Darryl treats him like a killer because of it. Darryl refuses to be called Dad and ignores Sunny unless he wins first place, just like his mother did. But Sunny hates running and always has. Now Coach needs to figure out what to do with a track team member who will not run. Sunny knows exactly what he wants to do instead. He wants to dance. Coach finds a solution that nobody expects. The discus throw combines the hard beats of hip-hop, the exact movements of ballet, and the performance energy of dance. Sunny joins Ghost, Patina, and Lu as the fourth member of the Defenders, an elite middle school team training for the Junior Olympics. As Sunny learns to release the discus at precisely the right moment, he begins to let go of the guilt that has consumed him since birth.
Genres: african-american, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Junior Olympics, Track
Period: Middle School
159 pages · Hardcover · Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books