I'll Give You the Sun

A teen boy is bullied and is the victim of a potentially dangerous drunken game. Another teen boy is harassed. A teen girl is raped.

The novel involves the awakening of sexuality among teens. There's intense romantic kissing between two boys and passionate kissing between a teen girl and a man. A teen boy suffers a devastating moment when he sees his mother throw her arms around her lover and kiss him.

There's a good deal of swearing and name-calling: "f--k," "holy s--t," "Christ," "Jesus," "dork," "a--hat," "garbage-headed scum suckers," and the anti-gay slur "homos."

The high school teens drink beer and have a dangerous, suicidal game with tequila. One character has used drugs and alcohol in the past. Cigarette butts provide evidence of smoking in one character's home.

Parents need to know that I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (The Sky Is Everywhere) is a brilliant, emotional, complex novel told in two voices, and it won the 2015 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults. In alternating chapters, often in a stream-of-consciousness style, we hear the voice of artistic Noah at 13 and that of his daredevil twin sister, Jude, at 16. The novel includes three love stories, awakening sexuality, devotion to art, a tragic death, betrayal, remorse, and forgiveness. There's some swearing and name calling (including "f--k," "holy s--t," and "homos"), teen drinking, bullying, and a rape. The two narratives collide in artful, touching, and revelatory ways.