I'll Give You the Sun (Reprint) (Paperback) by Jandy Nelson

About the Book

Book Synopsis

At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.

Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor.

The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world.

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

Printz Award Winner
Stonewall Honor Book

A wild, beautiful, and profoundly moving novel. Jandy Nelson's writing is so electric, so alive, her pages practically glow in the dark. --Ransom Riggs, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City

Jandy Nelson is a rare, explosive talent, and one of the best writers working today. Her prose is vivid, breathtaking, and drenched in passion, and her stories remind me why words can change the world. --Tahereh Mafi, New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series.

I love this book. Jandy Nelson is my new writing hero. Read this book. She'll be your favorite author as well. --Holly Goldberg Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Counting by 7s

Jandy Nelson's writing is poetic and mesmerizing. More importantly, Nelson weaves a novel that seeps into your bones like fire on a cold day . . . I'll Give You the Sun is a novel that promises a story like nothing else and then delivers it." --Garret Freymann-Weyr, author of Printz Honor book, My Heartbeat

This is a stunning, artfully woven story. My heart burst open at the blazing, unforgettable end. Magnificent. --Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone

An extraordinary book! I've never read anything like it. Lyrical-unique-passionate-magical-tragic-hopeful--Nelson's characters will fly off the page and into your heart. --Nancy Garden, author of Annie on my Mind

Review Quotes

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

This is the big one--the blazing story of once inseparable twins whose lives are torn apart by tragedy.--Entertainment Weekly, 5 YA Novels to Watch Out For

Dazzling.--The New York Times Book Review

Have you ever wanted to put a book in all of your friends' hands? This is that kind of book . . . Heartbreakingly honest.--San Francisco Chronicle

Bold, even breathtaking. You get the sense [the] characters are bursting through the words, breaking free of normal metaphors and constructions, jubilantly trying to rise up from the prison of language . . . The book celebrates art's capacity to heal, but it also shows us how we excavate meaning from the art we cherish, and how we find reflections of ourselves within it. . . . I'll Give You the Sun is a dazzling mirror--Lauren Oliver for the New York Times Book Review

Both structurally virtuosic . . . and emotionally wrenching. That alone is a rare combination in literature, YA or otherwise. But then add in the characters . . . This book is a rebuttal to anyone suggesting YA, because it tells stories of young people, is somehow of lesser stuff. I'll Give You The Sun is literature. Full stop. In my opinion, it's not just the best YA book of the year, but one of the best books of the year.--Gayle Forman for Parade

This book is many things at once, all of them engrossing. It's a book where teenagers think in almost indulgently poetic language while still sounding genuinely adolescent. It's two separate but equally intoxicating love stories. . . . Most of all, it's the mystery of what happened to tear Noah and Jude apart, and what--if anything--can bring them back together again.--NPR's Guide to 2014's Great Reads

This book is about many things: grief, sexuality, creativity, bravery, identity, guilt. But mostly it's about love. Be prepared with more tissues than you needed for The Fault in Our Stars, a chunky notebook to scribble down all the quotes and a handful of witty responses when people ask why you're chuckling to yourself in the corner. Because this book will make you realise how beautiful words can be.--The Guardian

Simply unforgettable. . . . If you're looking for a book that's deep and powerful and beautiful, look no further. You must read I'll Give You the Sun.--Lisa Parkin for the Huffington Post's "Top 12 Young Adult Books of 2014"

* "Readers are meant to feel big things, and they will--Nelson's novel brims with emotion (grief, longing, and love in particular) as Noah, Jude, and the broken individuals in their lives find ways to heal."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

* A resplendent novel...Art and wonder fill each page.--School Library Journal, starred review

* Nelson's prose is replete with moments of stunning emotional clarity, and her characters are as irresistible to the reader as they are to each other . . . No matter how they hurt each other, the love among all the characters is huge here--huge enough to destroy, huge enough to forgive, and huge enough to put their broken world back together again.--BCCB, starred review

* In an electric style evoking the highly visual imaginations of the young narrators, Nelson captures the fraught, antagonistic, yet deeply loving relationship Jude and Noah share.--Booklist, starred review

* An intricate and absorbing work of art emerges from the details of the interlaced sections. Few novels about twins capture so well the rewards and challenges . . . or the way in which people who have loved us remain in our minds after their deaths.--VOYA, perfect score

* Readers will be hooked.--Library Media Connection

"The novel is structurally brilliant, moving back and forth across timelines to reveal each teen's respective exhilaration and anguish . . . Nelson's prose scintillates . . . dizzyingly visual . . . Here's a narrative experience readers won't soon forget."--Kirkus

Told in poetic prose with the barest hint of magical realism . . . a compelling meditation on love, grief, sexuality, family, and fate.--Horn Book

I've gotten so involved in a book that I've missed my subway stop because I was reading; Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun might be the first time where I saw my stop and skipped it anyway.--The Daily Beast

I'll Give You the Sun is a daydream . . . otherworldly and mesmerizing . . . Nelson's evocative language envelops one's imagination . . . an exquisite surrender to wonder and possibilities.--The Boston Globe

I'll Give You the Sun gives the word 'intense' new meaning . . . a novel that makes you want to go out and skydive, but if you can read a novel like this now and then, you don't need to.--Newsday

This one is going to be big... It is full of all the good stuff that sticks with you: love, identity struggles, loss, betrayal, and the complications of family, so you'll probably feel all the feels.--Bustle.com

A blazing prismatic explosion of color . . . I'll Give You the Sun is that rare, immersive teen novel: To read it is a coming-of-age experience in itself.--Entertainment Weekly

[These] viewpoints--Noah's at 13 and 14, Jude's at 16--intersect in surprising ways, and eventually come together in a satisfying, if bittersweet, conclusion. . . . Young adults will learn they're not alone in navigating the emotional highs and lows of finding their identity; older readers will have moments of wistful recognition. I, for one, devoured this book."--Montreal Gazette

It's a meditation on life, art, family, fate, and how even the most broken people can help fix one another . . . This book will tear through you like a hurricane, leaving you in ruined awe.--Huffington Post

Ingeniously told from the alternating perspectives of its spunky twin protagonists, this (technically) young adult noel jubilantly holds its own against the fall's grown-up offerings, with dead-on insights about surviving youth--and family.--O, the Oprah Magazine

You'd think that we were plugging The Fault in Our Stars, but even that comparison might sell short I'll Give You the Sun... [It's] planted firmly in the positive, making for a gravity-defying, life-affirming experience.--San Francisco Magazine

[Nelson] has an electrifying facility with description, especially how her characters feel at a given moment . . . [Jude], Noah, and the fine cast of subsidiary characters . . . are most memorable for how they poignantly illustrate the most basic of human emotions--love, grief, shame, remorse, joy.--Chicago Tribune

"One of Fall's most anticipated YA books . . . it's filled with complex and controversial themes that are relatable to anyone who has struggled with identity, sexuality, family ties and other struggles of growing up."--Mashable.com

Will pluck at your heartstrings.--People

A wild, beautiful, and profoundly moving novel. Jandy Nelson's writing is so electric, so alive, her pages practically glow in the dark. --Ransom Riggs, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City

Jandy Nelson is a rare, explosive talent, and one of the best writers working today. Her prose is vivid, breathtaking, and drenched in passion, and her stories remind me why words can change the world. --Tahereh Mafi, New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series

I love this book. Jandy Nelson is my new writing hero. Read this book. She'll be your favorite author as well. --Holly Goldberg Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Counting by 7s

Jandy Nelson's writing is poetic and mesmerizing. More importantly, Nelson weaves a novel that seeps into your bones like fire on a cold day . . . I'll Give You the Sun is a novel that promises a story like nothing else and then delivers it." --Garret Freymann-Weyr, author of Printz Honor book, My Heartbeat

This is a stunning, artfully woven story. My heart burst open at the blazing, unforgettable end. Magnificent. --Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone

An extraordinary book! I've never read anything like it. Lyrical-unique-passionate-magical-tragic-hopeful--Nelson's characters will fly off the page and into your heart. --Nancy Garden, author of Annie on my Mind

Praise for The Sky is Everywhere

Nelson's first novel is tender, romantic, and loaded with passion.--The Horn Book

The author brilliantly navigates Lennie's course between despair and hope, sorrow and humor... a gripping love triangle.--Shelf Awareness

In this amazing tale of love and loss, Nelson introduces a cast of characters who make the reader laugh and cry.--NPR's The Roundtable

Nearly everyone who's staggering through life in the wake of a loved one's death will recognize themselves in this brilliant, piercing story.--The Denver Post

* This is distinguished by the dreamy California setting and poetic images that will draw readers into Lennie's world...--Publishers Weekly, starred review

A joy to read. You'll remember [it] long after you've turned the last page.--The Romantic Times

* It's romantic without being gooey and tear-jerking without being campy--what more could a reader want?--BCCB, starred review

* This is a passionate, vulnerable, wonderfully complete and irresistible book.--VOYA, starred review

[Nelson] writes with abandon... it's a headlong kind of book, preferably devoured at a single setting.--Los Angeles Times

Brimming with humor and life, full of music and the poems Lennie drops all over town, The Sky is Everywhere explores betrayal and forgiveness through a vibrant cast of characters.--SLJ

Those who think young adult books can't be as literary, rich, and mature as their adult counterparts will be disabused of that notion after reading The Sky is Everywhere... A finely-drawn portrait of grief and first love.--The Daily Beast

A story of love, loss, and healing that will resonate with readers long after they've finished reading.--Booklist

A story about love and loss... both heartfelt and literary.--Kirkus Reviews

Sky is both a profound meditation on loss and grieving and an exhilarating and very sexy romance. The book deserves multiple readings simply to savor Nelson's luscious language...--NPR (chosen by Gayle Forman as one of the top five teen reads of 2010)

How grief and love run side by side is sensitively and intensely explored in this energetic, poetic, and warm-blooded novel.--The Guardian

An addictive, romantic, heartbreaking, and wise tale of one girl's epic loss--and equally epic self-discovery. Seriously, stop reading this blurb; start reading this book!--Gayle Forman, author of the New York Times Bestseller If I Stay

Wow. I sobbed my eyes out and then laughed through the tears. I have not fallen in love with a story and its characters like this in a long time. Stunning, heartbreaking, hilarious. A story that shakes the earth.--An Na, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award and National Book Award Finalist

Okay, I admit it. I have a huge crush on this book--it's beautiful, brilliant, passionate, funny, sexy, and deep. Come to think of it, I might even want to marry this book.--Sonya Sones, author of What My Mother Doesn't Know

Full of heart, quirky charm, and beautiful writing, The Sky Is Everywhere simply shines.--Deb Caletti, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Jandy Nelson's story of grief somehow manages to be an enchantment, a celebration, a romance--without forsaking the rock-hard truths of loss.--Sara Zarr, National Book Award Finalist and author of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts

The Sky Is Everywhere evokes the intensity of desire and agony of heartache with breathtaking clarity. This beautifully written story will leave an indelible impression upon your soul.--Susane Colasanti, author of When It Happens

A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Title

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Translated into seventeen different languages

About The Author