Judging a Book by Its Cover: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

We so borrowed this idea from Sara at Forever 17 Books, who got the idea from an article on Babble called Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About. Basically, it's about getting a child's perspective on the story inside the book based on just the cover art. It can be hilarious, but it can also be enlightening.

Okay, I totally missed doing these posts with Katie, and it looks like it's been right at a year since our last one. While cleaning recently, I found the folder that I kept her previous iterations in -- all 33 of them! -- so I begged April to see if Aubrey would be up to contributing, too. Lucky for me, she was! =)






This week, the girls are working on the following book:

Title: I'll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Series: n/a
Publisher: Dial BFYR
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
Source: ARC received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell.

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant, fully alive, sometimes very funny novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Behold, the girls' attempts at recreating I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson...

Aubrey's masterpiece & guess:

Aubrey says:

"I think it must be about a sun. But the sun is special because it's made out of rainbows."

I can totally see where she would think that! I have to admit, I was very excited when Jen asked me if Aubrey would be into these posts. I used to love seeing Katie's book covers, and I was sad when they stopped. Now it's even more fun and special since both our girls are doing them.

I haven't read this one yet, but I can't wait!! I will be getting it as soon as it comes out!


Katie's artwork & thoughts:

Katie says:

"I think it's about someone going up in the sky to get the sun to give to someone that they really love and care about."

I just love her bold use of color and how she told me that she needed to add some lines of color to the middle because that white space was kinda boring. :) And I think her explanation of the book is perfect, don't you? :D

I just reviewed this novel earlier this week, and it is a must-read for anyone who loves stories about family and love and loss and betrayal and everything in between. It's as beloved to me as The Sky is Everywhere, another novel by this same author that deserves every bit of praise it's gotten.


Have you read this book or do you plan to? What do you think of the girls' artwork and their thoughts on the story's premise?

Labels: aubrey, beautiful covers, cover art, favorites, i'll give you the sun, judging a book by its cover, katiebug, penguin