Book Review: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Twins Noah and Jude have been inseparable halves of the same person their whole lives. Now 13, Noah is wondering what happened to his sister Jude. Always outgoing and athletic, she is now surrounded by a circle of girls, and never too far away from two of the boys who bully him. Jude is still there for him, wafting in and out as she pleases. It's this year that their mother decides they should go to art school, which pleases Noah. His mind is always painting, and he is always drawing. He and his mother bond instantly over this, unintentionally leaving Jude out.

At 16, Jude is failing at being an art student. All of her work ends up broken, destroyed or worse. No one seems to like her, and she tries hard to be invisible. Noah is distant, at the public school a popular boy involved in sports. She can't tell him the terrible things she did to put them in this place, and she doesn't recognize the boy that used to be so close to her.

What is it that happened between 13 and 16 that drove Noah and Jude apart? What secrets do they have, and would honesty truly bring them together again?

Told from 13-year old Noah and 16-year-old Jude's perspective, readers are treated to a world of art, family, first love and friendship. Noah and Jude have a strange relationship with art, and ghosts from the past influence what each is doing. Readers will long for the twins to just talk to each other, and while this is not a romance, the tugs of first love drive them apart and bring them together.

Much like The Sky is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson creates an atmospheric world where reality and the otherly combine to create something fantastic. If you are looking for that great odd book to keep you thinking, I'll Give You The Sun is the book for you!

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now reading Glory O'Brien's History of the Future. I love A.S. King!)

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