For as long as Sunny can remember, his dad has been urging him to run, to train harder, to get stronger. Sunny's mother died when Sunny was born, and his dad wants to see Sunny achieve her dream of winning a marathon. And Sunny's good at running, no question. It's just that he kind of hates it. Sunny has other dreams -- but he also has the best friends of his life on the track team, and he doesn't want to quit. Can Coach find a solution?

This third book in the series did not work for me. It's in diary format, and it suffers from the same issues that I've seen in other books for this format. For instance, there are several entries detailing the events of a track meet. Are we supposed to believe that Sunny brought his secret diary to the meet and whipped it out to write in every few minutes? And other entries are much more believable in terms of voice -- they're basically stream-of-consciousness -- but I just don't love Sunny's narrative voice the way I expected to. As one might expect by now, the book ends on a mild cliffhanger. All in all, I can see myself recommending this series to kids interested in sports books, but I won't revisit it. ( )

Solid book 3 from the track series, this time focusing on Sunny and all the things he does not say to the world. It's a little harder to immediately relate to than the previous 2 books, partly because there's spaces in the diary format that cause things to jump a bit, partly because Sunny's home-schooled life is so different from the other kids' school stories, and finally because Sunny thinks in sound effects a lot, which takes some getting used to. Still, the story is strong, and it's good to know where Sunny is coming from. ( )

Very weak effort. Disliked the format of "Dear Diary" and Sunny's voice, which sounded fake/contrived. The book jumped all over the place, and because Sunny was homeschooled, there was little else to do but agonize over Sunny's problems at home. The only highlight was Sunny finally doing something just for herself. This series has really gone downhill. ( )

children's fiction (3rd grade and up as a read-aloud, 4th and up as a read-alone--Sunny's spoken-word poetry style of writing will take a more seasoned reader to make sense of, but the themes he deals with are easy to feel for--deceased mother, withdrawn father, lonely homeschooled kid)

Book 3 in the "Track" series stands on its own, but you're going to want to read them all anyway and might as well read them in order.

Sunny is really "weird," as he likes to describe himself, and following his train of thought will amuse you but also endear you. Such a sweet, weird, lovable kid. ( )

Each book in the Track series is told in the first person by a different member of the team. Reynolds writes in a somewhat different style for each character, to give them each their own writing voice. That was a big drawback in this book. The story to be told was good, but the voice was irritating to read. Rather than a straightforward first person narrative, the whole book is diary entries, as in "Dear Diary, I don't know if I ever told you..." I've always found the idea of writing Dear Diary, as though the diary were a person, to be highly affected and silly. Add to that the way Sunny often writes in strings of nonsensical sound effects... "Has a tick or a boom. Or something. Like a tickboom. Or a tick-tick boom. Or a tick-bada-bada-boom-bap-bap-oh. Or..." Yes, that was a direct quote from the book. All to say, the book was not an enjoyable read like the "Ghost" and "Patina" were.

The story being told was good though. Sunny's mother died the day he was born. He's grown up calling his wealthy father "Darryl," and being tutored instead of going to school. His father has never addressed his own grief from the death of his wife, and as such, has not been a warm parent to his son. Always taken good care of him, but never given him the deep personal love Sonny craves. This is the real subject of the book. The whole track aspect (Sonny has always been a runner but starts throwing the discus in this book) feels like a somewhat irrelevant side story to the tale of the boy and his dad coping with their grief.

I've read most of Jason Reynolds' books, and rated all of them before either a 4 or 5 star. This one wasn't up to par with his usual work. ( )

Sunny is similar to ghost, but also very very different. The book is made up of the journal (or diary) entries that Suny has written since joining the track team, ( )

Sunny always runs the mile race, but one day he just... stops. In his diary, he explains why: truth is, he doesn't like running. He's only been doing it because Darryl (his father) wants him to, because it's what his mother who died when Sunny was born, would have wanted. Sunny isn't sure he wants to give up the track team, with his friends and sense of belonging, so Coach decides to teach him discus instead.

Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu each are new kids on the track team this year, and each get their story in this loose series. I say loose because while they happen in a certain chronology, any of the three books I've read so far could be picked up with no prior knowledge of the others and still be a good read. There may be minor spoilers, but it's so much about each character's development that it really doesn't matter. Sunny's writing in a diary was a surprising change of pace for this one, and if you like audiobooks, the performance by Guy Lockard is phenomenal and really brings the words off the page with all of Sunny's cadences and humor and sound effects. ( )

Part of the Track series but also a perfectly good stand-alone, this novel focuses on Sunny, and is told in his own voice in a "Dear Diary" format.

Sunny's mother died from an amniotic embolism when he was born, so Sunny has been raised by his father Darryl, and by his homeschool teacher, Aurelia. Darryl has had Sunny running nearly his whole life, because his mother was a runner. Sunny is good - he's the best - but no one ever asked him if he likes running, so at one track meet, he simply stops. Eventually this forces a necessary conversation with his dad, but it doesn't come right away. In the meantime, his coach helps him come up with a way to stay part of the track team: Sunny will throw the discus.

Guy Lockard's narration is perfect for Sunny, who repeatedly tells the diary that he is "weird." Lockard's delivery is almost like a slam poet at times, with a repressed-hysteria sound to it; you can hear Sunny working to keep a lid on things. ( )

Sunny, the Defenders' best runner, only runs for his father, who blames Sunny for his mother's death, but with his coach's help Sunny finds a way to combine track and field with his true passion, dancing. ( )

Sunny is usually the long distance runner for his track team, the Defenders, but he's never run for himself - always for his mom who died during childbirth. One day he decides he's just not going to run anymore, no matter how easy it is to win, he would much rather dance. The only sort of dancing on the track team is the discus, and through his journey learning how to participate in this new way, Sunny writes in his diary and shares all of his thoughts, feelings, and relationship challenges while finding himself.

This was weird. Admittedly at the end of the book the author comes on and says that this is the book about the weird kid, but I had a hard time with the train of thought - maybe it was because it was audio (and the reader did a great job making it seem like train of thought - half sing song, half ramble, weird emphasis). I appreciated the look into Sunny after reading the first two books in the series but if it started with this I don't think I would have continued. ( )

This is the third book in the Track series, but I did not read the other two before diving into this one. Although reading the other two books would have given me more insight into some of the characters and circumstances, I had no trouble connecting with Sunny and his story. In other words, this can be read as a stand alone.

Sunny runs track. He runs track and wins. Always. He loves his team, although he isn't really a fan of running and would rather do something different. Sammy lives with his father, who he doesn't get along with necessarily, and he's homeschooled, which doesn't leave him with a ton of social interaction outside of the team. This tale is a personal venture into Sammy's struggles to balance relationships with sports, while still exploring his own dreams which might not meet others' expectations.

Written in diary form, this took a few entries before the writing style and Sunny sunk in. Sunny is packed full of energy, and his mind bounces around as vividly as he does. Sunny's diary isn't boring. He's humorous and has tons of antics in his thoughts, which guarantee tons of smiles. Yet, there's a very serious side to Sunny too. The story is, at times, bittersweet. This, combined with Sunny's addicting personality, creates a read which grabs and hits the emotional heart strings.

The author has a wonderful ability to set himself into a middle grader's skin and slide into that world. The concerns, reactions, thoughts and emotions come across naturally, making Sunny into a kid living next door. He's easy to empathize with, and the topics he hits never venture far from those faced by many kids that age. It's a book to laugh, roll the eyes with, cheer along with and feel for when unpleasant or sad moments hit.

The sport aspects flow in with the rest of the tale and will come across as very familiar to track (and other sports) fans. Plus, it's a real treat to see track as the main setting in a middle grade series. . .and well done, at that. It's a book for boys as well as girls and is interesting enough to connect with even slightly more reluctant readers.

In other words, this one gets full thumbs up from me. ( )

Poor Sunny's life is filled with so much loss; the death of his mother, the inability to celebrate his birthday; living with a shadow of a father, and possibly never being able to follow his dreams. You can't help but empathize with Sunny as we get a look at his jumbled thoughts through the writings in his diary.

I'm interested to see where Jason Reynolds is going next with this series. When you go from the story of a boy whose father tried to kill him to the story about a boy who blames himself for the birth of his mother, what could possibly follow? ( )

Sunny is the third in the Track series, and I was really looking forward to getting inside Sunny's mind, because so far he has been a bit of a mystery.

Sunny is one of the four 'newbies' (with Ghost, Patina and Lu), the long distance runner. He is quiet, nice, supportive and that is almost all we know about him before reading his book. And that his relationship with his father seems painful and distant.

Right at the beginning of the book, Sunny decides that he does not want to run anymore. In the middle of a race that he is winning. It is the first step that he takes towards controlling his life. Coach does not give up on him, and seeks a way to include Sunny by having him train for the discus throw.

I love how Jason Reynolds writes the Track series from completely different character povs. This is a great series; looking forward to Lu's book.

*eARC Netgalley* ( )