Module 5: I'll Give You the Sun

Book Summary
I'll Give You the Sun tells the story of Jude and Noah, two twins that lose their mother. After the loss of their mother, they also lose themselves, their relationship, and their identity. The story tells the story of how all this lose occurs and how they get it back, in the end. Noah is scarred by not getting into the art school he wanted and struggling with his sexual identity. Jude struggles with the loss of her virginity and her failure in art school. They both are haunted by the decisions they've made in the past, how it affected their relationship, and how their relationship with their mother was at the time of her sudden and tragic death.

APA Reference of the Book
Nelson, J. (2014). I'll give you the sun. New York, NY: Dial Books.

Impression
This is hands down the best book I've read in this class. I adored how Jandy Nelson built all the characters, chipping away at them piece by piece, exposing more and more about them as a reader. Nelson was able to weave so many themes brilliantly together: family relationships; suicide; coming of age; being true to yourself; divorce; sexuality; falling in love; addiction. It never seemed like she was trying too hard to include all of these, it just worked. And it worked brilliantly. I stayed up way later than I should while reading this book, not because I needed to finish reading it, but because I wanted to. I've read a lot of good books lately, but this was on another level. There's a handful of books that I classify as "the last book." When I finish those books, I don't want to read another book for awhile. I'm afraid if I read another book, it's going to cleanse that book out of my system and I want to stick with this book forever. I want to feel the way I'm feeling when I finish this book forever. I want this to be the last book I ever read. I felt this way when I finished, I'll Give You the Sun. 

Professional Review

Artistically gifted twins Jude and Noah were once inseparable, but now barely communicate following two traumatic events, the death of their mother in a car accident and Jude gaining the place at Art College that Noah, with his mother's encouragement, considered his. The dramatic rift between the twins is mirrored in the dual perspective narration, split between the voices of the 13-year-old Noah and the 16-year old Jude. This narrative device takes a while to get used to but becomes increasingly effective as the two viewpoints show different slants on key events and characters and throw light on the complex and powerful connection between the siblings.

The book explores the vivid inner lives and artistic creativity of the twins as well as their burgeoning sexuality as Noah begins a tentative gay relationship and Jude's connection with a fellow art student gradually begins to erase her memories of a bad early sexual experience.

This is a complex and emotional novel written in heightened, visual language. It has many intertwined themes, art, love, jealousy, loss, betrayal, guilt and reconciliation. The dual narration, from different voices and times, gradually reveals more and more of the interlocking plot and of past family mysteries and secrets. These revelations, particularly about their parents' relationships, mean that the twins are finally honest with themselves and with each other and learn that life is complicated and that blame can be shared.

This tense, moving and vivid Y.A. novel should appeal to older teenage readers who love to immerse themselves in character, language, art and emotion.

Roe, Su. (2015). Nelson, Jandy: I'll give you the sun. School Librarian, Summer 2015, 126. 

Library Uses

If I had a YA book club in my library, this would most definitely be on the must reads for that club. It has so many themes that teenagers can connect to and I believe the discussion would be so rich. I also think the art aspect of this book would be a jumping off point for encouraging interested members of this book club to join art classes held at the library.