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Summary and Reviews of I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun

by Jandy Nelson
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 16, 2014, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2015, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell. Winner of the BookBrowse 2014 Award for Best Young Adult Novel.

Winner of the BookBrowse 2014 Award for Best Young Adult Novel

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways...until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they'd have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant, fully alive novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing - often all at once. 

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    Michael Printz Award
    2015

  • award image

    BookBrowse Awards
    2014

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Through gorgeous poetic language, and no-holds-barred examination of emotion (and their consequences), Nelson reminds us that we can only ever know our own perspective, and that seeking out other people's is the key to seeing the whole picture, and to survival. But in the end, this novel is a plea for deep love, and a testament to its power to heal...continued

Full Review (744 words)

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(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith).

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Beyond the Book



Car Crashes in Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature

In a controversial article in The Wall Street Journal in June 2011, "Darkness Too Visible," Meghan Cox Gurdon lamented that the world of young adult literature has become too dark – a forest thick with loss, pain, death, and the gruesome details that describe them all. She offered the suggestion that such books might introduce teens to issues such as rape, suicide, and kidnapping, to name only a few, and in doing so, make them feel normal and, thus, "spread their plausibility."

Car crashes in middle grade and YA literature fall to the edges of the box Gurdon drew. They are slightly less horrendous perhaps, and, more important, tend to be accidental acts as opposed to ones perpetrated by someone intent on causing harm. But they are ...

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Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked I'll Give You the Sun, try these:

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    Published 2020

    About this book

    Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets I'll Give You the Sun in an exhilarating and emotional novel about the growing relationship between two teens boys, told through the letters they write to one another.

  • Out of the Blue jacket

    Out of the Blue

    by Sophie Cameron

    Published 2019

    About this book

    When otherworldly beings start falling from the sky, it seems like the end of days are near - but for one girl, it's just the beginning of an adventure that will change her life.

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