The Sun Is Also a Star

Gr 9 Up—Two lives are changed forever when Natasha, an undocumented Jamaican teen seeking legal help on her last day in the country before she and her family are deported, and Daniel, a budding Korean American poet on his way to a Yale admissions interview and a future he doesn't want as a doctor, meet on the bustling streets of New York City. Daniel knows it's fate and sets out to convince the practical and scientific Natasha that they are "meant to be." Over the course of the day, they debate love and destiny, but neither can deny the connection between them, nor that time is not on their side. The superb Printz Honor title is brought to life by dual narrators Bahni Turpin and Raymond Lee, with occasional sections performed by Dominic Hoffman. Turpin and Lee fully express the emotions of the two teens as they fall in love, and they also provide performances for the parents, who play integral roles in the protagonists' lives. This story belongs to Natasha and Daniel, and Turpin and Lee. The narrators do a stellar job of conveying the characters' individual and interwoven journeys. Part coming-of-age, part romance, and all extraordinary.