The Sun is Also a Star

Starred review from September 12, 2016
Is it fate or chance that brings people together? This is the question posed in this impressively multilayered tale of a one-day romance featuring practical Natasha, whose family is facing deportation to Jamaica, and Daniel, a first-generation Korean American with a poet’s sensibility. The teens’ eventful day begins at a New York City record store, where they see someone shoplifting. It’s the first of many significant moments that occur as Natasha desperately seeks aid to stay in America and Daniel prepares for a college interview with a Yale alum. Drawn together, separated, and converging again, both teens recognize with startling clarity that they are falling in love. With a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of every character she introduces, Yoon (Everything, Everything) weaves an intricate web of threads connecting strangers as she delves into the personal histories of her protagonists, as well as the emotions and conflicts of others who cross their paths. A moving and suspenseful portrayal of a fleeting relationship. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sara Shandler and Joelle Hobeika, Alloy Entertainment.

Starred review from December 5, 2016
Natasha is 17 and an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica who came to the U.S. as a young child. Her family is to be deported at midnight, but she makes a desperate, last-chance effort to talk to an immigration lawyer in Manhattan. Daniel is a Korean-American whose parents insist he go to Yale and become a doctor even though he loves writing poetry and wants the freedom to figure out his own life path. He is unenthusiastically heading to Manhattan for his Yale interview. When the two meet by chance, they end up having a day full of deep conversations. Turpin and Lee both give award-worthy performances. Both completely inhabit their roles in an absolutely natural and authentic way: we feel that Natasha and Daniel are talking to us directly in their own unique voices, sharing their personal stories, feelings, and frustrations in alternating chapters. Both readers are deft with accents, too, whether it’s the Korean accents of Daniel’s parents or the Jamaican dialect of Natasha’s. The voices of the characters will ring in listeners’ minds long after the book is completed. Ages 12–up. A Delacorte hardcover.

This trio of narrators turns the alternating voices in this story into a terrific audio. Bahni Turpin emphasizes the raw, seething emotions of Natasha, a Jamaican teen who is in the U.S. illegally. Natasha has only one day to avoid being deported. Into her day walks Korean-American Daniel, portrayed by Raymond Lee. Lee's narration begins calmly but soon shows how Daniel is uncharacteristically stirred by his attraction to Natasha. Turpin and Lee convincingly portray a building relationship that begins with a rebuff but by day's end turns to love, and finally to heartbreak. Periodically, Dominic Hoffman interjects short commentary from other characters. His wide range of accents and tones portrays aspects of many characters in the past, present, and even the future. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine