44 pages • 1 hour read
Jason ReynoldsSunny
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Friday”
Sunny goes into Darryl’s room while he is on his date with the intention of putting the photograph Gramps gave him on his nightstand. He stays to look around the room. Sunny gets in the bed and sniffs Darryl’s pillow “to feel what it must be like to be him” (128). He then grabs the other pillow, presumably his mother’s, and hugs it. Sunny begins to cry and squeezes the pillow tightly until he sees that there are countless blue ribbons in the pillow. Sunny begins pulling out “years and years and years” (129) of ribbons, crying while he does so, until Darryl enters the room and sees Sunny on the bed surrounded by ribbons.
Darryl stands silent for a moment, and then joins Sunny on the bed to hug “the rest of my tears out” (130). Darryl apologizes to Sunny again, this time
for what happened to your mother
for making you run
for running
for shutting down (130-31).
They lay curled up together on the bed.
Despite their moment of connection, Darryl and Sunny resume their awkward silence the next morning at breakfast. Sunny makes pancakes for them, and Darryl offers Sunny a sip of his coffee. When Sunny spits out the coffee—“WHY IS ANYONE DRINKING THIS STUFF?!” (133)—Darryl bursts out laughing for the first time in Sunny’s memory.
This moment breaks the awkwardness between them. Sunny tells Darryl about Mr. Rufus, almost choking on the biscuit, and throwing discus at track. Darryl tells Sunny about his date with Ms. Linda. Darryl then shares stories about Sunny’s mother and shows him a picture of their first date.
Darryl takes Sunny to track practice. Sunny gets ready to practice while watching his father and Coach speak. As Sunny practices, he sees his friends Patty, Lu, and Ghost arrive to support him. Regardless of how Sunny performs, his friends cheer him on from the sidelines, and then Sunny hears Darryl’s voice join in the chorus of cheers.
Darryl and Sunny go to dinner at a Chinese restaurant after practice. Sunny asks Darryl doesn’t want to be called Dad. Darryl admits that after Sunny’s mother died, he did not feel like he could really be a father without her. Because he would never be able to hear Sunny call his mother Mom, Darryl thought “it was unfair for him to be called Dad” (144). They discuss this and decide that Sunny will continue to call his father “Darryl.”
Sunny admits to Darryl that he is scared for the track meet the next day because he feels he will let everyone down if he does not perform well. For the first time ever, Darryl tells Sunny not to perform for anyone but himself.
At home, Darryl and Sunny work on their latest puzzle together, which turns out to be the photo from Gramps. Darryl and Sunny build the puzzle together in silence and share a hug before going to bed.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Saturday”
Sunny opens an entry on Saturday morning saying he is too nervous about the track meet to write much. He also writes that he hopes Darryl is okay, because it’s Sunny’s Birthday: “Today is the day my mother died” (147).
Sunny arrives downstairs dressed in his uniform and sees that Darryl has made breakfast. Sunny thanks him and admits he is too nervous to eat. Darryl says it’s okay and wishes Sunny a happy birthday. This surprises Sunny, as on this day Darryl usually “sits in his chair and be stone” (149).
At the track meet, Coach informs Sunny that the discus throw will be the first event. Sunny feels like he is going to pass out, but then he sees Aurelia and Gramps arrive in the stands holding “like a hundred balloons” (154). Sunny tells Coach that today is his birthday, and shrugs when Coach asks him why he didn’t tell the team. Sunny runs over to Aurelia and Gramps, and he tells them how nervous he is “like all those balloons were in my body” (154). Aurelia pulls out a green marker and draws a star on Sunny’s forearm, in the same spot as his mother’s tattoo.
The announcer alerts Sunny and the other discus competitors to take their places. The referee tells them about the rules for the event and informs Sunny that he will be going first. Coach reminds Sunny that “it was just like dancing. Whoosh. He told me to just let it flow, and let it go” (157). Sunny’s first throw is a foul. Sunny sees Darryl stand up in the crowd and call out “Let’s go!” (158), which prompts Aurelia and his friends to cheer him on as well.
Sunny’s second throw is also a foul. Coach runs over to Sunny and tells him “that he could see… sound. In my face. In my body. He told me I needed to let it out. I needed to scream” (158). Sunny looks down at the green star drawn on his arm and tells himself: “I am not a murderer. I am not a hurricane. Nothing is wrong with me” (159). He thinks of the film Baraka and remembers that everything is moving, changing, and connected. The narrative concludes as Sunny spins, turns, and sends the discus flying.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
The emotional arc of Sunny and Darryl’s relationship comes to a climax in Chapter 8 when Darryl finds Sunny in his bedroom surrounded by the blue ribbons he collected over the years. Witnessing this scene prompts Darryl to finally be vulnerable with Sunny, and to apologize
for what happened to your mother
for making you run
for running
for shutting down (130-31).
This apology from Darryl shows a willingness to acknowledge how his actions have pushed Sunny away for much of his life. This scene also shows how Darryl and Sunny are beginning to fit together: “We were two S’s. SS, lying side by side. Ships, finally docked in the night” (131). Evoking the puzzle pieces that are their primary form of bonding, Darryl and Sunny fit together in an embrace. Though the word “docked” implies a cessation of movement, this scene does not magically repair Sunny and Darryl’s relationship.
Their connection is now stronger and better able to withstand the changes. Darryl’s laughter when Sunny spits out the coffee is evidence of this, and Sunny evokes the motif of breathing again in describing the sound of Darryl’s laughter: “It actually sounded kind of painful. Like a bad cough. Like hacking and hacking and hacking up something he’d been choking on for a long time” (134). By describing Darryl’s laugh as sounding “painful,” “hacking,” and “choking,” Sunny illustrates the release that Darryl is experiencing and how this change is an ongoing process, and not an easy one.
Further evidence of their growing closeness comes when Darryl tells him the rationale behind wanting Sunny to call him by his first name: “he didn’t feel like he could truly be a dad without my mother. And that it just didn’t feel right” (144). This vulnerability enables Sunny to decide that he wants to continue calling his father Darryl, a decision that no longer signifies their emotional distance from one another, but their ability to communicate.
Sunny experiences a powerful shift in his self-perception in the final scene. At the meet, Sunny throws two fouls. Sunny grows increasingly frustrated, the familiar feeling of choking washing over him. Coach rushes over to Sunny before his third throw and says “he could see it in my face [...] he could see… sound. In my face. In my body. He told me I needed to let it out. I needed to scream” (158). Hearing this, Sunny lets go of the beliefs he’s held about himself for his entire life in an act of healing: “Everything is moving. Everything is changing. Everything is connected [...] I am not a murderer. I am not a hurricane. Nothing is wrong with me” (159). Sunny no longer feels broken or responsible for his mother’s death. He uses the “Boom-bap bap, buh-boomboom bap! Boom-bap bap buh-boombom bap!” (159) of his heart to push “the sound tears make on the inside, I have to get on the outside. Baraka. I’m going to scream. Baraka. I’m going to scream it out and away” (159). His scream exorcizes the last of his insecurities and self-doubt, enabling him to change and step into self-acceptance.
The novel ends on a cliffhanger, with the outcome of Sunny’s final throw unknown, emphasizing that the results are not as important as the growth Sunny embraces.
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