Yoon, Nicola.
THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR
New York : Delacorte, 2016
IL YA
ISBN 0553496689

(4 booktalks)

Natasha is looking for answers all over New York City.  Her father has been arrested for drunk driving, exposing her family who has been living in the United States as undocumented immigrants for the past decade.  On her search for answers, she meets Daniel who is on his way to interview for acceptance at Yale.  Daniel’s parents emigrated from South Korea and have high hopes for him to become a doctor.  As the day winds down and the universe intervenes, Daniel and Natasha find themselves falling in love.  Will the unlikely couple be able to make it past today? (Oklahoma High School Sequoyah Award, 2018)

Booktalk #3

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?  (New Hampshire Flume Teen Award, 2018)

Booktalk #4

In alternating first-person chapters The Sun is Also Star chronicles the romance between Natasha, an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica whose family is being deported the next day, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American whose parents are insisting he become a doctor.  They meet and fall in love during one fateful day in NYC. Natasha, who is an outstanding science student, is facing deportation because her dad was arrested on a DUI charge.  She is looking for a lawyer who can help her family stay in the US long enough for her to get into college. Daniel, a dreamer and a poet, is on his way to an interview for admission to Yale. They witness a shoplifting incident at a record store and he falls in "love at second sight;" (where you meet a person and know you'll fall in love). Their paths continue to converge throughout the next 12 hours and Daniel is determined to make her fall in love with him. Although she is in a race against time, Natasha can't help but be charmed by his insistence that fate means for them to be together. This book has won numerous accolades, including 2016 National Book Finalist; and Amazon, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, and Buzzfeed best book of 2016. ((Colorado Blue Spruce Award, Booktalk by Toni Weller.)