Emily Tran

English 9H P.2
5/18/17
Ill Give You The Sun.

Love, superstitions, betrayal, and death: Jandy Nelson manages to mash all of these

topics together into 371 pages to create Ill Give You The Sun. Ill Give You The Sun tells

the story of two twins, Noah and Jude Sweetwine, going through their own problems, without

realizing that the only way to solve them is to work together. In addition to the various topics

discussed, the book also switches from 13-year-old Noahs point of view to 16-year-old Judes

pov.

The beginning of the book is Noahs to tell. The two twins are close and do almost

everything together, however that changes when Noah starts hogging their moms attention.

Noah spends more time alone and Jude spends all of her time at parties. Their mother, Dianna,

insists they both go to the California School of the Arts, or the CSA. Noah is ecstatic, but Jude is

reluctant to go. She calls it a school for freaks, even though she herself likes to sculpt. Noah is

the only one who knows about her sand sculptures, and he encourages her to show their mom.

Things get worse when their parents announce their dad is moving out. When a new boy, Brian,

moves into the neighborhood, Noah quickly develops a crush on him. Later, they confess their

feelings, but keep their relationship quiet since Brian still is in the closet. They have a falling out

soon after when Noahs mom walks in on them. Brian freaks out and ends the relationship, while

Noah is embarrassed, since he hasnt come out to his family yet. Noahs mother attempts to

comfort him, but only ends up making him more angry.

She leaves and, afraid that she was going to tell his dad, Benjamin, Noah follows her.

Noah discovers she was having an affair with an artist, Guillermo Garcia, after seeing them kiss
at the park. He confronts her, but she only says that she intends to leave their dad, and drives off

to deliver the divorce papers to Benjamin. On the way there she gets in a fatal car crash, and

Noah takes the opportunity lie and to tell everyone she was on her way to make things right with

their father.

Three years later. Noah and Jude are barely speaking. Jude attends the CSA and is failing

her classes due to what she believes is her mothers ghost breaking her sculptures in revenge for

her brother, who didnt get into the school. When their father told them to mail the applications,

Jude only mailed hers in. Jude requests to sculpt in stone so her mom cannot break it. She is sent

to Guillermo Garcia, a local sculptor. He grudgingly accepts to be her mentor, and she meets

Oscar, a model that Garcia views as a son. He flirts with her, but doesnt let things go too far

since shes sworn off boys. The day of her mothers death she lost her virginity, and she believes

it caused her mothers death. Noah finds out Jude is being mentored by the very person that their

mom was having an affair with.

Afraid that Jude might find out he was the reason their mom died he gets drunk and

nearly kills himself jumping off of a cliff. He gets saved by Oscar, and Noah and Oscar recognize

each other from when Noah would sit outside the CSAs art classes to listen in; Oscar was one of

the models until he got kicked out for being too drunk. Jude and Oscar drag Noah home, and

they kiss. The moment is ruined though, when Oscar sees a photo of the family, and realizes that

their mom is the one that Garcia had an affair with. Oscar runs away, and Noah explains

everything when he wakes up.

The twins finally reconcile as they tell each other the truth and all their secrets. Jude

doesnt blame Noah for their mothers death, and Noah is relieved that the reason he didnt get in
was because his application hadnt even been received. Jude attempts to bring Noah and Brian,

who went on to Stanford to play baseball, back together by emailing Brian. They tell their dad

everything and he seems to be comfortable with the fact that Dianna was going to leave him.

Oscar comes to their house during dinner and talks to Jude. They establish their relationship and

decide to date. Noah and Jude visit Garcia, who is relieved that Dianna still loved him, and says

he wants to continue mentoring him. A few weeks later, Jude and her dad are outside when they

spot Brian and Noah, who had been emailing Brian pictures of his artwork until he agreed to

meet up, exiting the forest hand in hand.