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Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: The #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist from the bestselling author of Everything, Everything will have you falling in love with Natasha and Daniel as they fall in love with each other. Natasha: I�m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I�m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won�t be my story. Daniel: I�ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents� high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store�for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? ***"Beautifully crafted."�People Magazine"A book that is very much about the many factors that affect falling in love, as much as it is about the very act itself . . . fans of Yoon�s first novel, Everything Everything, will find much to love�if not, more�in what is easily an even stronger follow up." �Entertainment Weekly"Transcends the limits of YA as a human story about falling in love and seeking out our futures." �POPSUGAR.com .… (more)
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Daniel was born in the United States, but his parents are immigrants of Korea.
Natasha and Daniel have never met.....until today,
It sounds kind of cutesy and young adult, and it is, but it's so much more. I love the way Nicola Yoon writes her characters and her stories. They're real and they're down to earth. But they're funny and unique as well. In this one, chapters alternate between both Daniel and Natasha's points of view, interspersed with chapters from minor characters they interact with along the way. The whole story takes place within less than 24 hours, but those hours are jam-packed with emotion. It's a quick read, but a really enjoyable one. I'm anxious to see the movie which is due to be released next year.
So I liked Nicola Yoon’s other book so much, that I immediately picked up her other one and I liked it even better!!
This young adult novel takes place in one day. It centers around two characters, Natasha and Daniel, who run into each other and fall in love
Daniel is headed out for an entrance interview that may land him as a student at Yale. He is being pressured by his parents to go to Yale to become a doctor, but in his heart he really just wants to be a poet. His father will do anything to guarantee that he and Charlie have a better life than he did.
Daniel has very romantic ideas about life and be believes everything happens for a reason. He really struggles with his identity and nationality/race. His parents think he’s not Korean enough, everybody else things he isn’t American enough.
Natasha is headed out in desperation because her family is to be deported to Jamaica that night and she will do everything she can to prevent it. Natasha’s father is an unemployed want to be actor who has pretty much given up on life. It is his fault the family is being deported. He got a DUI and basically told the cops he was living in America illegally. Natasha used to adore her father and now she can barely stand the sight of him.
Natasha is very scientific. She doesn’t believe in love and she thinks, “Life is just a random series of good and bad things that happen until one day you die.” She thinks life has no meaning and tries to avoid being hopeful because she feels that, “the trouble with getting your hopes too far up is: It’s a long way down.”
Daniel says of Natasha, “I wonder why a girl who is obviously passionate is so adamantly against passion.”
What I really loved about the book is the brief glances we got into the lives of those people Natasha and Daniel encounter through the day. We get a glimpse inside their heads. It just goes to show that you never know what’s going on in a person’s life.
I won’t tell you how it ends, but you will find yourself hoping these two end up together. You will laugh and you may even tear up a little. I loved it!!
A few quotes:
Natasha’s father: “You can get lost in your own mind, like you gone to another country.” All your thoughts in another language and you can’t read the signs even though they everywhere around you.”
“Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.”
“We have big, beautiful brains. We invent things that fly. Fly. We write poetry. You probably hate poetry, but it’s hard to argue with ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate’ in terms of sheer beauty. We are capable of big lives. A big history. Why settle? Why choose the practical thing, the mundane thing? We are born to dream and make the things we dream about.”
Natasha: “I know there’s no such thing as meant-to-be, and yet here I am wondering if maybe I’ve been wrong.”
Like most romances, enjoyment of the story requires a certain suspension of reality, coincidences, saying the perfect thing at the right moment, teasing but not too much - all the things that make romances work. But hey it's a romance. And it's a YA romance. 12 and up. I don't know if I would want my 12 year old reading this, mostly because of some language though not four letter naughty language. But then again, 12 year olds are about twice as old as I was at that age, so... There's no drugs nor anything else that I think parents might find objectionable. This is a good holiday read, a nice escape from reading all the heavier stuff. Yoon has an earlier book out. Will I read it? Don't know, maybe.
Natasha Kingsley, 17, is an illegal Jamaican immigrant who is about to be deported
This is no trite unsubstantiated case of "InstaLove" like one usually finds in young adult novels, however. Rather, it is inspired and utterly convincing, in spite of the fact that Natasha doesn’t even believe in love: she reserves her faith for science, while Daniel is a poet and a dreamer. [I love how this book upends the usual gender-associated traits.] Natasha defines a successful marriage as one involving “mutual self-interest and socioeconomic compatibility.” For Daniel, the key ingredients are “friendship, intimacy, moral compatibility, physical attraction, and the X factor.” (Natasha asks, “What’s the X factor?” “Don’t worry,” Daniel replies, “We already have it.”
And indeed they do. He considers them “meant to be.”
But through another series of improbable events, fate intervenes. And though they feel as if they have “fit a lifetime into a day,” when the day is over, it will be time for Natasha to leave.
Discussion: This book provides a good understanding of the difficulties faced by immigrants, difficulties that are not well-enough appreciated by those lucky enough to have ample opportunities and/or lack of dangers in their countries of origins. One thinks, for example, of all the German Jews in the 1930's who were terrified of what was going on at home, but even more scared at the prospect of abandoning their lives, their language, and the repository of their memories. As one of the characters muses:
“For most immigrants, moving to the new country is an act of faith. Even if you’ve heard stories of safety, opportunity, and prosperity, it’s still a leap to remove yourself from your own language, people, and country. Your own history. What if the stories weren’t true? What if you couldn’t adapt? What if you weren’t wanted in the new country?”
There is a lot of science and physics in this book too, but it is so well done I bet most readers don’t even realize they are being educated. There is also very humorous meta-commentary by Daniel in the form of headings to some of the chapters he narrates, and wonderful explanatory "interludes" by the narrator on all manner of topics germane to the story.
Evaluation: This story is funny, smart, wise, and endearing. There's not a drop of magic in this book, but it is magical nevertheless. It is not the writing itself that is necessary luminous, but the characters. It’s one of the best books I read all year.
Rating: 4.5/5 (I would have given it a five, but I thought the ending - amazing as it was, could have been expanded a bit. Should have been expanded a bit. Okay, I wanted the book to keep going forever.)
Note: National Book Award finalist (Young People's Literature, 2016)
Beautifully written, Yoon captures the innocence and the all-consuming feeling of falling in love for the first time. Her shifts in perspective to include various characters allow readers to feel a multitude of sentiments, all the while layering her characters and connecting them in a kaleidoscope of ways. Prepare to fall in love with this novel, and don't be embarrassed to let a sigh of "that was perfect" escape your lips as you close the final page. Witty characters in the style of John Green and a wistful romance a la Sarah Dessen combine to give this novel appeal to so many readers. Highly recommended!
A timely story, given the fear of deportation among undocumented immigrants. And the age old spin on Romeo and Juliet--can love really conquer all? A story that will appeal to teens who like romance and aspire to fulfilling their own dreams.
Three voice actors: Daniel, the Korean-American boy, Natasha, the Jamaican girl, and the narrator. I found Daniel's fast tempo narration to be annoying, but not unexpected. I enjoyed Natasha's voice, and wasn't crazy about the narrator. I could see this story easily as a movie.
Shy, he can’t go up to her and introduce himself, but fate steps in again when he saves her from being hit by a car as she crosses the street. Daniel, the poet, has fallen in love. Natasha, the pragmatist and scientist, hasn’t come close.
But, events work themselves out and they spend the day together. Yoon not only tells their story, but also ancillary stories: the security guard at USCIS (U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service), the secretary for Natasha’s immigration lawyer, their parents and siblings. Chapters alternate between Daniel and Natasha, with asides about various people, theories, etc.
Yoon also explores the complicated Korean American family dynamics and Jamaican American family dynamics–the thought of greener pastures in America and the wish of immigrants that their children have a better life than they had.
Will Daniel go to Yale? Will Natasha stay in the United States? Will it require a parallel universe to keep these lovebirds together? The only way you’ll know is by reading The Sun is Also a Star.
For a similar, totally enjoyable book about love in a day, try Jennifer E. Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.
OK, so I have to put my two cents in. Is The Sun is Also a Star award worthy or finalist worthy? I don’t know. It certainly was an enjoyable read. The characters suck you in and never let go. It does deal with complicated issues such as family dynamics, parents forcing careers on their children, deportation, love. Yet, despite this, I found the book to be light and fluffy. Since both the National Book Award and the Michael L. Printz Award are “literary” awards, I’m not sure The Sun is Also a Star fits the categories. If this was a popularity contest, by all means. So, you decide for yourself. Let me know your thought.
The book was a really easy read. Each chapter was only a page to 3-4 pages long in a big font size. The book was categorized for Young Adult. When I thought of YA, I assumed it was written for teens around 13-17. However, I think this book is more suitable for older teenagers like 19-20.
I really liked this book, except for one little thing. The mentioning of God or religious was a little more than my liking. However, their argument on science (theories) vs religion was interesting enough to make it tolerable.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Received a free hardcover copy from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.