I am always on the lookout for young adult novels that I can recommend to students. Finding those that are written well and will appeal to the teenage brain can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. The stories can feel trite, the characters can be flat, and the dialogue can be unrealistic.
Nicola Yoon avoids all of these flaws in The Sun is Also a Star. The narrative alternates between two characters, Daniel and Natasha, and spans only the course of one day (besides the epilogue). Occasionally there is a chapter about one of their parents, or one of the random other people they encounter, but it is mostly these two central characters.
Daniel is the son of South Korean immigrants who expect him to go to an Ivy League school and become a doctor, despite the fact that he is a poet who has no interest in medicine.
Natasha was born in Jamaica and immigrated illegally with her family at the age of eight. She loves science and is skeptical about anything that cannot be tested and proved--including love. Her father, an aspiring actor, has been arrested for a DUI and now the family is being deported.
On her last day in New York City, Natasha meets Daniel and, despite all odds, they fall in love as they desperately try to save Natasha from deportation.
I loved this book for two reasons:
(1) Although it seems crazy that anyone could fall in love in one day, the character development and the way the plot unfolds is actually quite believable. Teen readers will swoon at the chemistry between Natasha and Daniel, and adults will be transported back to the days of their own first love. I could not put this book down.
(2) These two characters represent very different American immigrant stories, and give readers a personal connection to two experiences that they may not know anything about.
Natasha's story of being brought to the U.S. as a child, growing up as an American teenager with dreams of attending college and being a scientist, is the antithesis of the "illegal immigrants are our enemy" narrative that students may have been exposed to previously.
Daniel's parents left behind lives of poverty, trusting that their hard work would pay off in a foreign land. Their story is the typical "American Dream," but it comes at a cost. They are surprised when their sons become true Americans, with all of our focus on independence and the individual as master of his/her own destiny. They don't understand why Daniel is choosing what he wants to do over what he should do.
So often people think of immigrants as being from one region, but the truth is the United States has immigrants-- both legal and illegal--from all corners of the world. They come here for many different reasons and have varied experiences. Immigration reform is complex and there are no easy answers, but this story made me feel empathy for anyone who is in Natasha or Daniel's shoes. It also made me feel lucky that my own ancestors took that leap of faith, crossing the ocean to an unsure fate that ultimately led to me having more opportunities than they could possibly imagine.