I’ll give you the sun. I’ll give you the flowers. I’ll give you half of the sky, the mountains, the stars. These are the promises that twins Noah and Jude make to each other in the days before everything falls apart. Though once NoahandJude, an inseparable unit, they turn away from each other after the tragic death of their mother. Their beautiful story—one of art, redemption, discovery, and family—is told in bits and pieces, past and present. Dreamy artist Noah covers the time before the accident when they are 13 years old, and wild sculptor Jude takes over afterward when they are 16 and broken.
When he is 13, Noah is wrapped up in his art…when he’s not wrapped up in thinking about the beautiful boy who just moved in next door. He creates paintings and portraits in his head and sneaks to the local arts school to spy on life drawing classes. Getting in to that school is his biggest desire. Aside from kissing that aforementioned boy next door, that is.
When she is 16, Jude is angry and grief-stricken and superstitious. She sees ghosts everywhere and she’s sure that the spirit of her mother is destroying all of her sculptures at the arts school (which she attends and Noah does not). Her brother has put down his sketchbooks and morphed into a dumb jock, and so Jude has no one to turn to for help with her art. Or her life.
When she decides to apprentice with a local sculptor and his enigmatic young assistant, Jude has no idea what kinds of secrets she is about to dredge up. Each sibling only has half of the story, but each of their perspectives is raw and important and electric. When combined, they form a full and beautifully interconnected narrative.
Both Noah and Jude are great characters with unique voices, and their combined story isn’t like anything else on the young adult market right now. Jandy Nelson is a dynamo of an author, and it’s no surprise that this book won her the 2015 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. Mature readers will love the lush language and the host of unconventional characters who inhabit these pages, even as their hearts get broken. 384 pages 78-0142425763 Ages 14 and up
Highly recommended by Molly Crumbley, Librarian, Maryland, USA.
Awards for this book:
Winner of the 2015 Michael L. Printz Award Winner of a 2015 Stonewall Honor
A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2014 A TIME Top Ten Young Adult Book of 2014 A Boston Globe Best Young Adult Novel of 2014 A Huffington Post Top 12 Young Adult Book of 2014 A 2014 Cybil Award Finalist A 2015 YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults Book A 2015 Topo Ten Rainbow List Selection A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2014 A School Library Journal Best Book of 2014 A 2014 Booklist Edtior's Choice Book A Bustle.com Top 25 Young Adult Novel of 2014
