The Sun is Also a Star

Yoon, Nicola. (2016). The Sun is Also a Star. New York, NY: De la Corte Press.

Awards: New York Times Best Seller, Michael L. Printz Honor Book

Grade level: 8+

Lexile level: HL650L

Pages: 384

Summary: Natasha's dad got in trouble with the police, so now the entire family is hours of being deported to their homeland, Jamaica. She is having a difficult time saying goodbye to New York City, specially the Bronx, the place she's called home since she was eight. She goes to the INS building in downtown Manhattan to find a way to stay in the States, she is counting on fate, even though she doesn't believe in it. 

Daniel comes from South Korean immigrant parents. Pressure by his family to be like his older brother Charles, he is also in downtown interviewing for an application to Yale to become a doctor, even though his heart is in poetry. In the middle of all their chaos, by the laws that make our universe work, their paths cross and they are destined for their futures. 

Reader's response: Some of the chapters of the book are written in first person from Natasha and Charles point of view, others are written in third person telling the perspective, history, and future of characters they encounter through out the course of a 12 hour day. All the characters lives are connected in some way, from Irene, the guard at the INS building, to the word "irene" used by Jeremy, the immigration attorney, to describe Jamaica. This novel can be a biographical reading to students that come from immigrant parents, have two cultures, and are trying to find their place in world. Many students that were brought to America as children and don't remember their native land or their faraway relatives can relate to Natasha. It can be read by vicarious experiences, for others to see the struggles of immigrant students. It is great that Nicola Yoon drew from her own life experiences to describe the characters and details in the story, she comes form Jamaican immigrant parents and her husband is Korean-American.  

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