The Sun is also a Star—by Nicola Yoon
I learned about this novel, meant for Young Adults, from a list for best books of the year. Having never read a novel geared towards Young Adults, I whet my curiosity with this one. The premise is irresistible and fresh. The two central characters—Daniel, a Korean American teen and Natasha, an offspring of Jamaican immigrants in America—each set out to accomplish a very specific goal of varying complexities and consequences. Daniel dreams in poetry and teems with individuality and idealism as he sets out on an unpleasant errand to satisfy his conventional, disciplinarian parents. His against-the-grain ideals have taken a harsher turn in probability with his over-achieving brother returning home as a failure in his parents’ eyes. The stakes are higher for Daniel to not conform to filial obligations and wishes. Natasha, a proper teen with a penchant for pragmatism and Science, is bent on saving her family from deportation caused by a drunken episode by her troubled father. Beside her...