I'll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson

Title: I'll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Publisher: Dial Books
Year: 2014
Pages: 371
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: LGBTQ+, First Love, Art, Sibling Rivalry
Age Range: 8th Grade and Up

Summary:

Jude and Noah are twins. They have always been close, like two sides of the same coin. Noah is shy and isolated, spending all of his time drawing and dreaming of life as an artist. Jude, the outgoing daredevil, is equally protective of and a little frustrated by her gentle brother. Part of this story is told from the 13 year old Noah's perspective, the other part from the 16 year old Jude's. By the time Jude is telling her part of the story, the twins' family has been torn apart, and Noah and Jude are both struggling to survive some both the death of their mother, and personal tragedies that neither will share, driving them farther and farther apart. Can they ever find a way to bring their stories back together?

Review:

In preparation for my new job as a high school literacy coach, I have been spending a lot of time reading YA literature this summer. I have read some fabulous books, and some not so fabulous-everything from gritty realistic fiction about growing up black in America to fantasy novels dripping with magic and folklore. But I think I'll Give You the Sun takes the prize for best-written, most creative YA novel I've read in 2016.

Both Noah and Jude are fully drawn, fully realized characters, with rich inner lives that are the driving force behind the action of the story. My heart ached for both of them at different points in the narrative. They were both dealing with circumstances that were not of their making, though often their own choices contributed to the drama they were wrestling with. Noah's feelings for the boy next door were achingly tender and raw. Jude's desire to break away from her parents and blaze her own path are so familiar. Both of them find themselves in vulnerable situations, and while Noah loses his art in the process, Jude finds hers. There is a strange push-and-pull between them, with one gaining strength while the others weakens. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and I could not stop reading.

Art and artists are central to this story. It ends up exploring the very nature of art. What is it for? Is it worth making? What happens when you lose it? What are you willing to give up to make it? I realize that art classes don't generally do novel studies, but I couldn't help but think that high school art students, ones who are really serious about their art, would find a lot to relate to in this book.

There are some adult themes here that would be lost on less mature readers. Sexual assault, extramarital affairs, and parental death are all major plotlines. But they are handled with skill by an author who is not looking to sensationalize, but to create a world for her characters that the reader can empathize with. I think this book is an excellent addition to any high school library or literature class.

Teacher Resources:

Jandy Nelson's Website
Penguin Discussion Guide
The Nudge Discussion Questions
Lit Lovers Reading Guide

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliet

Title:  Chasing Vermeer
Author:  Blue Balliet
Publisher:  Scholastic
Year: 2004
Pages:  254
Genre:  Realistic Fiction/Magical Realism
Themes:  Fitting In, Coincidences, Art, Friendship
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Balliett's book follows young Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay as they piece together separate, seemingly disconnected events to locate The Lady Writing, a Vermeer painting that gets stolen en route to Chicago's Art Institute. Going on the theory that there are no coincidences, the two wonder about the link between their teacher's statements, Petra's dreams, a book Petra finds in the library, and other clues that set the reader guessing as to their significance as well. But after they learn of the culprit's aim to correct untruths about Vermeer's life and art -- which spurs them into full-throttle detective work -- the pieces all come together in a brilliant ending sure to make readers cheer, "Ah ha!"

Review:
If you are a fan of The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, but are looking to use more recent books in your classroom, then Chasing Vermeer should be right up your alley.  This mystery for the elementary school set is full of intriguing coincidences, art history, and enough clues to make teaching inferring a pleasure rather than a chore.

The main characters, Petra and Calder, are both oddballs in their 6th grade class.  They go to the University of Chicago Lab School, a place where teachers are encouraged to "teach outside the box", and their teacher, Mrs. Hussey, certainly takes that philosophy to heart.  Rather than use a prescribed curriculum, Mrs. Hussey allows the interests of the children and the questions they have about the world to drive her instruction.  As a teacher, tht sounds like heaven, especially in these days of test, assess, and test again!  This type of learning really appeals to Petra and Calder, and definitely prepares them for the mysterious circumstances in which they find themselves.

One of the delights of this book for me, other than really smart characters and an emphasis on art, which I love, is the setting.  The book takes place in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, an area of the city I know really well.  It is where the University of Chicago is, and as such is an interesting blend of diverse people from all over the world-students, professors, and local Chicagoans alike.  One of the most important places in the story is Powell's Books, which is one of my very faorite bookstores in the world!  There are many references made to locales around 57th Street, including parks and restaurants that I could instantly picture when they were mentioned in the story.  Of course, if you aren't a Chicago native, you can still appreciate the way Balliet describes the beautiful buildings on the U of C campus, and can probably feel the raw cold of late fall/early winter in Chicago. 

Aside from the mystery of the missing painting, which ends up having a fairly mundane explanation, there is an element of magical realism in the story.  There are just too many coincidences for them to actually be coincidences, but what (supernatural?) power may be at work behind the scenes is a mystery.   In addition, both Petra and Calder have what can only be described as visions-Petra in dreams (both waking and sleeping), and Calder in the random (or is it?) appearance of certain number patterns and shapes.  There's lots of fodder for discussion here, and the opportunity to make a curricular connection with art by studying the paintings of Johannes Vermeer, a real Dutch artist from the 17th century.

The Sherlock Files: The 100 Year Old Secret, by Tracy Barrett

Title:  The Sherlock Files: The 100 Year Old Secret
Author:  Tracy Barrett
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Year:  2008
Pages:  157
Genre:  Mystery
Themes:  Art, Deduction
Age Range:  3rd-5th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Xena and Xander Holmes have just discovered they’re related to Sherlock Holmes and have inherited his unsolved casebook! The siblings set out to solve the cases their famous ancestor couldn’t, starting with the mystery of a prized painting that vanished more than a hundred years ago. Can two smart twenty-first-century kids succeed where Sherlock Holmes could not?

Review:
Xena and Xander are two smart kids, but then you'd have to be to solve hundred year old mysteries left behind by Sherlock Holmes.  Barrett does a good job creating a setting that somehow feels British, even though the main characters are American.  There's talk of their flat, and the Tube, and boarding schools...all very UK.  This is the first book in a series that so far has three books, so children who enjoy the first mystery can continue visiting Barrett's fictional  London.

As mysteries go this one is pretty good.  The kids follow clues and use deductive reasoning throughout.  Not all of their ideas pan out, but they show a perseverance that is a good example for real live children who seem increasingly adverse to "try and try again".  They also have something that the "real" Sherlock Holmes did not-21st Century technology. Conveniently, their mother is a reviewer of new gadgets for some online magazine, so they often have prototypes of new technology hanging around the house.  To solve this mystery, they needed a device that would locate metal behind a wall.   In the course of the search they meet Watson's youngest descendant, a painter, a gallery owner, the headmaster of a school, and a girl in a purple hat.  Figuring out how all of these people are related to the painting they are looking for takes brains, which Xena and Xander have in spades.  There isn't exactly a lot of deeper meaning here, but as an example of the mystery genre this book does the job adequately.