A Book Review of Kay DiBianca’s ‘Another Side of Sunshine’

Hello everyone!! Isabelle Knight back here again with another middle-grade book review, which is probably LONG overdue, but you’ll forgive me, right? 🙂 Anyway, today I am back with another book review of a fantastic book I recently read, and it is just such a fun, sweet middle-grade book!!!! Definitely something younger middle-grade readers would enjoy!

The book is a really fun and sweet MG contemporary mystery, and it was so much fun reading it!! And that book is… Another Side of Sunshine by Kay DiBianca!!!

Again, this is a shorter MG contemporary mystery, and I’ve been looking for a few contemporary mysteries, so I was super excited to read and review this book!!!! The characters are really fun, super sweet, and I loved all of the little clues and mysteries in this book!

So, Another Side of Sunshine is about ten-year-old Reen Penterson who is trying to spend her summer writing a novel (yay, a writer!) to become rich and famous and not have to go to school anymore. Which is, honestly, quite relatable. But when a treasure hunt in the university town she lives in comes around, she jettisons the novel and decides to find the loot with the help of her nine-year-old cousin, Joanie! The treasure hunt starts with a cryptic clue from the ever so mysterious Mr. Shadow. Competing against other teams of treasure seekers, Reen and Joanie form the R&J Detective Agency and track clues all throughout the library and around the campus of Bellevue University. And let’s just say a lot of things happen, including a bunch of mysterious clues, not-so-nice competitiors, etc. And with time slipping through their fingers, Reen and Joanie get one last chance to locate the treasure. But can they do it before the time runs out?

I really enjoyed this book! I don’t read that much contemporary mystery (mainly because I struggle to find any good ones. Hence why I’ve been on the lookout for them), but I really enjoyed this one! The characters were so sweet and super relatable, with their own personality and quirks, and I just loved that! My favorite character is definitely Joanie — there’s just something about her that’s so sweet and endearing! Reen was also such a fun character, and as someone who very clearly remembers what it’s like to be 10 years old, I have to say that her character was very true to how a 10 year old might think, and she was just so much fun and full of personality!

Again, I also loved the clues and mysteries! They were all super fun, and I just loved seeing Reen and Joanie race against time to solve all of them! And I had such a great time trying to solve the clues along with them! As someone who was obsessed with secret codes and readers when I was 11, the clues and mysteries were just so much fun to try and solve, even though my code and riddle-solving skills might be a tad bit rusty… I solved the first one pretty easily, but I definitely did need to think a bit more on the others.

I think the author definitely did a really good job coming up with the clues — she manages to make them cryptic and yet fun for the readers and characters to solve at the same time! And not overly cryptic either! Which can be rather hard for me, and it’s also the reason why I myself haven’t tried writing a book like this! I’m not sure I could pull off the clues, especially since I’m a pantser. 😂😅

My favorite part of the book was definitely when Reen and Joanie finally managed to solve all the clues! I won’t give spoilers of course, but it was just so much fun when they actually solved all the clues! Especially since there was a slight twist beforehand… Again, no spoilers, but I’ll just say it did upend what they thought the clues really did mean.

There are also quite a few Christian/biblical phrases/themes scattered all throughout this book, which I think would definitely make it a great read for Christian families who are looking for a good MG contemporary mystery!!

The only thing I was rather confused about was when Reen mentioned how she’d climbed up the wall of a university bell tower when Joanie had gotten kidnapped. It did feel a tad bit out of blue and I wasn’t quite sure what happened. But I mean, from Reen’s character, it’s definitely not that unbelievable that she’d do that to save her cousin. And nonetheless, you can’t argue that it definitely does add a bit of intrigue to Reen’s character.

Another thing I like about the book is just really how short and fast and fun it is! I know there are a lot of reluctant readers who are moving on from chapter books but are rather intimidated by the size of longer MG books, and I think this is a book that’ll be perfect for them!!

So yeah! Overall, I think this is a great middle-grade contemporary mystery! I’d definitely recommend it to anyone ages 8 to 10 who’s looking for a short, sweet, fast and fun MG contemporary mystery! And I think Christian families will definitely enjoy the Christian elements to this book!!

I suppose this wraps up my review of Another Side of Sunshine! Thank you guys so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this review, and I definitely hope you’ll check out this middle-grade contemporary mystery!! It’s a fantastic read!! Have a wonderful day, and I hope to see you again in the next post!

Isabelle