I'll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson, 2014
Young adult RomanceContemporary fiction
A painterly YA novel about twins, first love and the stories families tell to survive each other, told in two braided voices. Painterly, lyrical prose carries a twin story of grief, first love and family secrets at an emotional, sometimes breathless pace.
Feels like wonder, longing and grief. About art, family and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy YA contemporary stories about art, twins and first love told in expressive, image-rich voices. The two braided narrators ask you to keep track, so it can feel demanding if you prefer a single straight line.
Why read it
It gives you a vivid, feeling-led look at how siblings remake themselves and each other, with art and longing on every page.
A page from the book
Maybe a life is not one self but a crowd you keep adding to.
Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people,” I say. “Maybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time.” Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things. Jandy Nelson.Jandy Nelson's second novel won the 2015 Michael L. Printz Award, the American Library Association's top prize for young-adult literature.
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Questions readers ask
- Is I'll Give You the Sun for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy YA contemporary stories about art, twins and first love told in expressive, image-rich voices. The two braided narrators ask you to keep track, so it can feel demanding if you prefer a single straight line.
- What is I'll Give You the Sun like?
- Painterly, lyrical prose carries a twin story of grief, first love and family secrets at an emotional, sometimes breathless pace. Feels like wonder, longing and grief. About art, family and identity.
- What should I read after I'll Give You the Sun?
- If you liked I'll Give You the Sun, try All the Bright Places (Jennifer Niven), November 9 (Colleen Hoover) and Girl in Pieces (Kathleen Glasgow).
A taste of the feed
What a family argues about when it can't talk about death.
She’s shivering or shaking, I can’t tell which, and so I slowly inch my way toward her, hoping I don’t fall off before I get there, because the last thing I want to do is make a jackass out of myself in front of this girl. “I’ve made it clear I want cremation, but my mom doesn’t believe in it.” And my dad will do whatever she says so he won’t upset her any more than he already has, and besides, You’re far too young to think about this, you know your Grandma Finch lived to be ninety-eight, we don’t need to talk about that now, Theodore, don’t upset your mother.
All the Bright Places · Jennifer Niven
A daughter hears what her father is really mourning.
I was one of the fastest up-and-coming teen actresses just two years ago, and the moment the fire burned away my looks, the studio pulled my contract. I think he mourns the idea that he’s not the father of an actress more than he mourns almost losing his daughter to a fire that was caused by his carelessness.
November 9 · Colleen Hoover
Recovery isn’t restoration; it’s learning the shape of the pieces.
Everyone has that moment I think, the moment when something so momentous happens that it rips your very being into small pieces. And then you have to stop. For a long time, you gather your pieces. And it takes such a very long time, not to fit them back together, but to assemble them in a new way, not necessarily a better way. More, a way you can live with until you know for certain that this piece should go there, and that one there.
Girl in Pieces · Kathleen Glasgow
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