It's autumn of 1976 and Sunny Lewin enters the strange and unfriendly hallways of middle school. When her Gramps calls her from Florida to ask how she's doing, she always tells him she's fine. But the truth? Sunny is NOT having the best time. Not only is the whole middle school thing confusing but life at home is confusing, too. Sunny misses her brother Dale, who's been sent to boarding school. But when Dale comes back, she STILL misses him because he's changed. Luckily Sunny's got her best friend and a mysterious new neighbor on her side because she is NOT going let all this confusion get her down. Instead, she's going to remain Sunny-side up!