I’ll Give You the Sun

Plot Summary
Jude and her twin brother Noah have grown up being NoahandJude, sharing thoughts, souls, and dreams. When the twins turn thirteen, things start changing. Their mother wants them both to attend a prestigious art school, which triggers a competition between the twins. Dynamics within the family and with Jude and Noah’s friends begin to twist, and the twins are keeping secrets from each other. Initially they want to keep each other safe, then they try and hurt the other.
     The story is told in alternating viewpoints across the span of three years. Noah narrates chapters when he and his sister are thirteen years old, just starting to explore their world and what is outside of their insulated twin life. Jude’s chapters are when the twins are sixteen, coming into their sexuality and understanding the world at large. Both characters are drastically different, their voices ringing true and unique with each chapter, though the reader can sense their twin connection. The twists of drama in the story will push the reader to read just one more chapter!, desperate to reach the fantastically satisfying resolution.

Critical Analysis
The characters in I’ll Give You the Sun are very unique, but in an approachable way. The reader is immediately immersed in Jude and Noah’s worlds, seeing things through their eyes, needing to read both sides of the story to learn what is really going on. Changing narrators, especially across the span of years, can sometimes be difficult to pull off, but Nelson has done this flawlessly, and teens will not feel lost in the story as the voices and times change. In fact, using both twins to tell the story is the book’s major strength. Getting into both Jude and Noah’s heads rounds out the action, and the span of three years switching back and forth each chapter keeps the reader in the dark about interesting things happening in the twins’ lives. While the story is strong enough to work even in a straightforward narrative format, the alternating viewpoints makes the book very alluring for teens.
     This book is great for the typical Young Adult reader, aged 12 to 18—and beyond! The depth of emotion in the story makes it easy to relate to whether the reader has experienced events from the book, or is living vicariously through the characters. Jude is a great role model for girls as she regrets past decisions that once made her proud, and strives to change herself for the better. Noah is struggling with his sexuality, trying to decide if he should be true to himself, or try to avoid bullying and disappointing his father. Regardless of teens’ sexuality, this book is a great way to show different sides of a situation that often gets overlooked in fiction.

Related Activities
I’ll Give You the Sun is a beautiful book that tackles a lot of complicated issues. As a librarian, I would have a program about the book in general, with activity stations teens could explore according to their interests.
     The Art Station. Noah and Jude are both artistic in different ways—Noah creates gorgeously realistic sketches and paintings, while Jude prefers to work with her hands in sand, clay, and stone. The Art Station has sketch pads, pencils, pastels, and paints for teens to draw whatever’s on their mind. There are also lumps of clay and kinetic sand they can use to sculpt. If no inspiration strikes, there is also a jar of prompts from the book teens can pick from. The slips of paper have scenes and topics from the book, as well as the titles of Noah’s art that could serve as a great jumping-off point to creating some beautiful works of art.
     The Twin Tank. Jude and Noah had a lot in common, but they are drastically different people. The Twin Tank is a creative writing station for teens to write about an event—real or fictional—from their point of view, then rewrite it as their twin might have seen it. Their twin doesn’t have to be the opposite of the teen, but they definitely won’t be the same! This gives teens a chance to step out of their own lives and see things from a slightly different view.
     Rule the World. Throughout their lives, Jude and Noah have been trying to rule the world. They barter with the sun, moon, sky, grass, flowers, trees, and other elements of earth to get small gifts of favors from each other. Break teens into partners or small groups and give them small symbols of the earth to barter with (either paper cutouts of each element, or scale model figures). Put a topic or item up for grabs and let them get to it! After ten or fifteen minutes, ask each teen or group to talk about what they traded and why.

Resources
Noah is a young teenager when he realizes he’s gay. He struggles with his identity, wanting to keep a secret to avoid teasing and to keep from disappointing his father. It takes time, and many mistakes, before Noah feels comfortable with who he is—but things don’t have to be that way. Teens have many resources at their fingertips, like:
- Gay-Straight Alliance
- It Gets Better Project
- StopBullying.gov
- Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network: Student Action

Professional Review
Devore, Linda. “I’ll Give You the Sun.” Library Media Connection 33.6 (2015): 66. EBSCOhost.
     Web. 14 June 2015.

Read it for yourself!
Nelson, Jandy. I’ll Give You the Sun. New York: Dial Books, 2014. Print.

Hatchet

Plot Summary
Brian Robeson is flying on a small plane to visit his father in Canada. This is his first time visiting his dad since his parents split up, and Brian hates that he knows why his mom wanted to divorce. He's battling with himself over whether he should tell his dad that secret when the pilot of his plane has a heart attack. The pilot had just shown Brian how to steer the plane, but of course that isn’t enough to ensure Brian gets to his father safely. He radios in for help, but is left on his own to try and land the plane. After crashing, Brian is wounded but still alive. He is left in the Canadian wilderness to forage for provisions and build a shelter, not knowing how long he’ll be on his own before he’s found.

Critical Analysis
Hatchet is a really interesting story that will draw in a lot of teen readers; who doesn’t secretly love the idea of trying to make it on their own? The book is a little slow to start, with too much time spent with Brian and the pilot in the loud cockpit and not much story being developed. The flashbacks to Brian learning his mother’s secret were also a little tough to follow. They were spaced from the action of the story, but might be more accessible for reluctant readers if they were their own chapters with the timing clearly noted as a flashback.
     Learning how to survive alongside Brian makes for an adventurous read, but a lot of the writing seems a bit too poetic to keep the attention of reluctant readers. Paulsen employs a lot of repetition which makes the story sound nice, but the fragments make it a little hard to follow the story, and teens who aren’t avid readers will likely get frustrated. This is unfortunate, because the book could be edited down to be very concise and readable for different reading levels. Even so, it could still be a suitable book for middle grade children, especially if they are more advanced readers. The book doesn’t have explicit language or scenes; though Brian does learn to survive by killing fish and small animals, the visuals aren’t gruesome.
     This book deserves to be a young adult classic because the struggle is timeless: being stranded in the wild with nothing to help you except your own skills. Even with today’s plethora of technology, teens could equate being in Brian’s shoes to being without their phone! Books that have such a timeless theme will always be relevant for readers.

Related Activities
Teens are very dependent on technology these days, which can be great! It’s a necessary skill in most job fields, and it’s easy to create images, videos, and audio files on a variety of devices. When Hatchet was written, Brian didn’t have any of today’s technology—and even if he did, it probably wouldn’t have worked in such an isolated location.
     Host a “Survival” program for teens. Assign each patron or small groups a task, like: how to collect rainwater and make it safe to drink; how to identify poisonous berries and plants; how to start a fire. The possibilities are endless! Give teens time to research their subject, either in the stacks or online. Give time for the solutions to be shared. Then, have everyone turn in (or off) their device. Pass out good old fashioned paper maps, and give each teen a route to trace. Start in your city and send them to the other side of the country, or to a little-known city hidden in the middle of your state. See how well teens do when they have to read a map themselves, without the help of Google or MapQuest! Whoever makes it to their destination first (and on real roads!) wins a prize!

Related Resources
What if Brian hadn’t been rescued at the end of Hatchet? Feel free to use your imagination, but Gary Paulsen wrote his version of what might happen in the alternate ending called Brian’s Winter. There are three more books documenting Brian’s struggle to live in the “normal” world and his return to the wild. Read them all:
     Paulsen, Gary. Brian’s Winter. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1996. Print.
     Paulsen, Gary. The River. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1991. Print.
     Paulsen, Gary. Brian’s Return. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1999. Print.
     Paulsen, Gary. Brian’s Hunt. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2003. Print.

My Side of the Mountain is a novel of survival written in 1959. Readers who liked Hatchet and its follow-up books would love the My Side of the Mountain trilogy!
     George, Jean Craighead. My Side of the Mountain Trilogy (My Side of the Mountain / On the
          Far Side of the Mountain / Frightful’s Mountain). New York: Dutton Books for Young
          Readers, 2000. Print.

Professional Review
Reutter, Vicki. “Hatchet (Book).” School Library Journal 50.5 (2004): 64. EBSCOhost. Web.
     6 June 2015.

Read it for yourself!
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1987. Print.