Fiction: Contemporary, Coming of Age, Art, Romance, LGBTQ
“People die, I think, but your relationship with them doesn't. It continues and is ever-changing.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun
Title: I’ll Give You the Sun
By: Jandy Nelson
Book Group Leader:
Goodreads: 4.15
Amazon:
Ms. Smith’s Review: 4 Stars! Betrayal, family, love, and forgiveness are at the heart of this book. It is a sweet coming-of-age story filled with sibling rivalry, discovery, and loss. I listened to this through overdrive and loved the readers, however, some of the "accents" were a bit distracting. It was a bit slow going and in some instances a bit predictable, but really enjoyed the characters.
Awards/Honors:
Stonewall Book Award Nominee for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2015), Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee for Honor book (2015), Josette Frank Award for Younger Readers (2015), Michael L. Printz Award (2015), Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2016)
Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2016), The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2016), Lincoln Award Nominee (2016), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2014),
Review: Booklist starred (November 1, 2014 (Vol. 111, No. 5))
Grades 9-12. When Noah’s mom suggests that he and his twin sister, Jude, apply to a prestigious arts high school, he is elated, but Jude starts simmering with jealousy when it becomes clear that their mother favors Noah’s work. Noah soaks up the praise, though a little callously, happy to hone his painting skills and focus on the guy across the street, who could be more than a friend. Fast-forward three years, and everything is in pieces. Their mother has died in a car crash, and Noah, who wasn’t accepted to art school, has given up painting, while Jude, who was accepted but is no longer the shimmering, confident girl she once was, is struggling in her sculpture class. All her clay forms shatter in the kiln; is her mother’s ghost the culprit? Determined to make a piece that her mother can’t ruin, Jude seeks out the mentorship of a fiery stone carver (and his alluring model, Oscar). Nelson structures her sophomore novel brilliantly, alternating between Noah’s first-person narrative in the years before the accident and Jude’s in the years following, slowly revealing the secrets the siblings hide from each other and the ways they each throw their hearts into their artwork. In an electric style evoking the highly visual imaginations of the young narrators, Nelson captures the fraught, antagonistic, yet deeply loving relationship Jude and Noah share.