Publishers Weekly
★ 04/29/2024
High schoolers Florence, a dancer, and Jude, a photographer, meet while participating in the traditional “sunrise night,” the last day of art camp, during which campers stay out all night. Despite the pair’s individual challenges—Florence worries that a worsening eye condition will end her ability to dance and Jude struggles with heightened anxiety in the aftermath of his parents’ divorce—they make each other laugh, and think, and hope. They know there’s something between them, but since Jude has a girlfriend, and he and Florence live nowhere near each other, they agree not to talk again until the next sunrise night. Coauthors Cavallaro (Manifest) and Zentner (In the Wild Light) employ spot-on banter to deliver a romance teeming with an ambiance of endless possibility on the precipice of devastating heartbreak. As the teens bond over their shared love and conviction for their craft, between them spins a love story that is truly suspenseful. The will-they-won’t-they plot, ferried along by the duo’s alternating perspectives, will have readers struggling between racing toward the ending and lingering over the luminous verse. Protagonists read as white. Ages 13–up. Agents: (for Cavallaro) Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary; (for Zentner) Charlie Olsen, InkWell Literary. (July)
From the Publisher
"An ode to those magically elastic nights of summer, when anything and everything feels possible. A knockout!” — Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"If there were any doubts that the combined forces of Zentner and Cavallaro would knock our socks off, this gorgeous book lays them to rest." — David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author
"Funny, lyrical, and utterly charming—Sunrise Nights is a whip-smart romantic stunner. I absolutely loved it." — Jasmine Warga, New York Times bestselling author
"An emotional duet. Together, the voices gradually create their own source of 'new light.' Beautiful!" — Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor-winning author and Young People's Poet Laureate Emeritus
“Coauthors Cavallaro and Zentner employ spot-on banter to deliver a romance teeming with an ambiance of endless possibility on the precipice of devastating heartbreak. Luminous.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Distinctive and charming.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“Beautifully written. Offer[s] readers a memorable experience.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Will hook readers from the start. A smart, swoony, and witty romance.” — Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2024-04-05
Two teens meet at an arts camp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and form a lasting bond.
Florence, a dancer with nystagmus, an eye condition that affects her depth perception, is working through her grief that she may not be able to continue dancing when she meets Jude, a photographer. The closing tradition at Harbor Arts Camp is called Sunrise Night, an evening in which the teens are permitted to leave the camp to hang out in the surrounding town—all night if they wish (with check-ins). Jude is honest right away about having a girlfriend, but as the two move from one eccentric small-town venue to another, they realize they’re undeniably attracted to one another. They vow to meet up again at Harbor Arts the following summer but in the meantime to return home to Wisconsin (Florence) and Tennessee (Jude) and avoid all communication: “Total silence for a year.” In alternating entries comprising both verse and short prose passages from each of their perspectives, Florence and Jude’s story is told as a sort of comedy of errors taking place on three Sunrise Nights over three successive years. This protracted, slow-burn romance works thanks to their frenetic, philosophical, wildly funny, and poignant voices, which will hook readers from the start, even if the verse sections may strike some as a little too earnest at times. Florence and Jude are cued white.
A smart, swoony, and witty romance. (Romance. 13-18)
