Sunshine Home

Eve Bunting displays her wide repertoire of themes with this text, using her perceptive honesty and sensitivity to explore a family's transition to nursing home care for their aging mother/ grandmother.  Here a seven year old boy, Timmie, visits his grandmother in this home, the "Sunshine Home," for the first time.  He is scared but won't admit it outright.  Instead he goes in with a too cool attitude, describing the paint color as "barf green," and saying his stomach hurt as he entered.  He is embarrassed to bring in a balloon with the word "love" on it.

With this sensitive text, Bunting forces readers to puzzle over what truly constitutes love.  Is it interacting with someone who has it all together in a setting that is to our liking, or is it being with someone "in sickness and in health," "in good times and in bad?"




By the end of the story, Timmie has revealed his real feelings and his fears to his parents.  This honesty paves
the way for him accepting the true burden of love - cherishing someone, caring for them and sticking by them, even when it's not in your own self interest.

Theme: Love is... present in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad.

To extend this, we brainstormed how much care little babies need - they are helpless.  Students read a short article about caring for little babies.  We explored how this was much the same as caring for an old person.  They have already given that care to their children.  Now the gift of caring love is coming full circle.