When Noah returns from camp to find his boyfriend missing, he discovers that facing his personal demons might require battling actual ones, too.
In Hello Sunshine, Keezy Young delivers a haunting yet tender story for Young Adult readers. Noah returns from Bible camp expecting a reunion with his secret boyfriend, Alex, only to find him missing following a severe mental health crisis. Teaming up with Alex’s twin brother Jamie and their friends Izzy and Sky, Noah sets out on a search that quickly blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. What starts as a missing person investigation transforms into a journey where the characters must confront literal monsters alongside the metaphorical heavyweights of faith, family trauma, and queer identity.
This title is a distinct asset for high school collections serving students who need emotional depth without dense prose. The text operates at a very manageable reading level, making it accessible to readers who might be intimidated by standard novels but still crave mature, complex themes. Young’s artwork reduces challenge here; the color palettes shift from warm, stable tones to darker hues to signal changes in psychological states. This helps students intuitively grasp the internal struggles with psychosis and fear even if they miss nuances in the text. For English language learners, this visual scaffolding is crucial—when the dialogue uses specific terms related to mental health or religion, the images provide immediate context. The sentence structures remain largely simple or compound, ensuring the plot moves quickly without confusing the reader. Already highlighted in Publishers Weekly’s Fall 2025 Preview and recipient of a starred Kirkus review for its nuanced handling of mental illness, this book allows educators to introduce sensitive topics through a medium that supports comprehension rather than testing it.
