Horn Book Jude (a girl) and Noah are fraternal twins; once very close, they now hardly speak to each other. The reasons for their estrangement gradually come to light over the course of the novel through the twins' alternating voices from different points in time (Noah at thirteen, bullied for being gay; and sixteen-year-old artist Jude). A compelling meditation on love, grief, sexuality, family, and fate. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Twins Noah and Jude are inseparable until misunderstandings, jealousies, and a major loss rip them apart. Both are talented artists, and creating art plays a major role in their narratives. Both also struggle with their sexuality-Noah is gay, which both thrills and terrifies him, while Jude is recovering from a terrible first sexual experience at age 14, one of two important reasons she has sworn off dating. Nelson (The Sky Is Everywhere) unravels the twins' stories in long chapters that alternate between their perspectives. Noah's sections are set when the twins are 13, Jude's at age 16, giving readers slanted insights into how their relationship deteriorated and how it begins to mend. The twins' artistic passions and viewpoints suffuse their distinctive voices; Noah tends toward wild, dramatic overstatements, and Jude's world is wrapped up in her late grandmother's quirky superstitions and truisms. Readers are meant to feel big things, and they will-Nelson's novel brims with emotion (grief, longing, and love in particular) as Noah, Jude, and the broken individuals in their lives find ways to heal. Ages 14-up. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Starred Review. Gr 9 Up-A resplendent novel from the author of The Sky Is Everywhere (Dial, 2010). Fraternal twins and burgeoning artists Jude and Noah are inseparable until puberty hits and they find themselves competing for boys, a spot at an exclusive art school, and their parents' affections. Told in alternating perspectives and time lines, with Noah's chapters taking place when they are 13 and Jude's when they are 16, this novel explores how it's the people closest to us who have the power to both rend us utterly and knit us together. Jude's takes are peppered with entries from her bible of superstitions and conversations with her grandmother's ghost, and Noah continuously imagines portraits (complete with appropriately artsy titles) to cope with his emotions. In the intervening years, a terrible tragedy has torn their family apart, and the chasm between the siblings grows ever wider. Vibrant imagery and lyrical prose propel readers forward as the twins experience first love, loss, betrayal, acceptance, and forgiveness. Art and wonder fill each page, and threads of magical realism lend whimsy to the narrative. Readers will forgive convenient coincidences because of the characters' in-depth development and the swoon-worthy romances. The novel's evocative exploration of sexuality, grief, and sibling relationships will ring true with teens. For fans of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl (St. Martin's, 2013) and Melina Marchetta's realistic fiction. See author Q&A, p. 152.- Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Book list *Starred Review* When Noah's mom suggests that he and his twin sister, Jude, apply to a prestigious arts high school, he is elated, but Jude starts simmering with jealousy when it becomes clear that their mother favors Noah's work. Noah soaks up the praise, though a little callously, happy to hone his painting skills and focus on the guy across the street, who could be more than a friend. Fast-forward three years, and everything is in pieces. Their mother has died in a car crash, and Noah, who wasn't accepted to art school, has given up painting, while Jude, who was accepted but is no longer the shimmering, confident girl she once was, is struggling in her sculpture class. All her clay forms shatter in the kiln; is her mother's ghost the culprit? Determined to make a piece that her mother can't ruin, Jude seeks out the mentorship of a fiery stone carver (and his alluring model, Oscar). Nelson structures her sophomore novel brilliantly, alternating between Noah's first-person narrative in the years before the accident and Jude's in the years following, slowly revealing the secrets the siblings hide from each other and the ways they each throw their hearts into their artwork. In an electric style evoking the highly visual imaginations of the young narrators, Nelson captures the fraught, antagonistic, yet deeply loving relationship Jude and Noah share.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2014 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly This engrossing coming-of-age novel of artistic twins Noah and Jude unfolds in an unusual way: the twins tell the story in alternating first-person chapters, but Noah's chapters take place when they're 13, and Jude's take place three years later, at age 16. In the intervening years, a tragedy has occurred, tangled up in a messy web of betrayals, lies, and secrets, which gradually reveal themselves. Bernstein and Whelan are both excellent narrators. As 13-year-old Noah, Bernstein conveys all the yearning, hope, and insecurity of an adolescent boy: the swooning highs and crushing heartbreak of first love, the worry of hiding the fact that he's gay, the need for parental approval, the fear of bullies, and the hope of getting into a prestigious arts school. Whelan's chapters take place in the aftermath of the tragedy and estrangement of the twins, and in her voice we hear all of Jude's self-loathing, guilt, and bitterness, and the hard shell she has constructed to shut out the world. Whelan is also pitch-perfect at voicing an English ex-junkie trying to put his life together. She can't quite manage a Spanish accent for the reclusive middle-aged artist whom Jude wants to be her mentor (the accent she attempts almost sounds Russian), but she does bring out his colorful personality: a fierce, passionate, desperate, eccentric artistic genius. This emotionally nuanced rendition of a memorable novel is highly recommended. Ages 14-up. A Dial hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Kirkus Twins Noah and Jude used to be NoahandJudeinseparable till betrayal and tragedy ripped them apart.Nelson tells her tale of grief and healing in separate storylines, one that takes place before their art-historian mother's fatal car accident and one that takes place after, allowing readers and twins to slowly understand all that's happened. An immensely talented painter, Noah is 13 1/2 in his thread, when Brian moves in next door to their coastal Northern California home. His intense attraction to Brian is first love at its most consuming. Jude is 16 in hers, observing a "boy boycott" since their mother's death two years earlier; she is also a sculpture student at the California School of the Artswhich, inexplicably, Noah did not get into. Haunted by both her mother and her grandmother, she turns to an eccentric sculptor for mentoring and meets his protg, a dangerously charismatic British college student. The novel is structurally brilliant, moving back and forth across timelines to reveal each teen's respective exhilaration and anguish but holding the ultimate revelations back until just the right time. Similarly, Nelson's prose scintillates: Noah's narration is dizzyingly visual, conjuring the surreal images that make up his "invisible museum"; Jude's is visceral, conveying her emotions with startling physicality. So successful are these elements that the overdetermined, even trite conclusion will probably strike readers as a minor bump in the road. Here's a narrative experience readers won't soon forget. (Fiction. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Kirkus Luca and his family self-deport to Mexico after receiving a letter. Because neither Luca's mother nor his father has "papers," they can no longer live in the United States even though the boy and his brother, Paco, are U.S. citizens. Saddened, they cross the border and drive to Grandma's house. Luca, who speaks no Spanish, finds solace in his trumpet. When he falls asleep, he dreams he crosses a bridge of music back over the border. After visiting his old home, he flies to his school and plays a song for his friends who have gathered to greet him. The experience makes him so happy he wakes up laughing, and his entire family joins in as sadness flies out the window. Their laughter builds a bridge of hope to the home they were forced to abandon. Llanos' bilingual snapshot of American children trapped by complicated immigration policies meanders in a disjointed journey across the southern border. The abrupt, nave ending implies that because Luca can visit his friends and home in his dreams, all is well, and he and his family are no longer depressed. Lpez Real's manga-inflected illustrations are heavily symbolic, but sometimes they inexplicably diverge from the narrative. Where a bridge is mentioned, there is only a dilapidated fence; where a hill is described, there is a flat valley. In addition, details unnecessarily change from scene to scene. A Spanish version of the text, also written by Llanos, runs alongside the English. Despite flaws, this book can serve as a springboard for discussion of this timely and sensitive issue. (author's note) (Bilingual picture book. 5-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list Though Luca and his brother are U.S. citizens, their parents aren't. Instead of risking deportation, the family decides to return to their native Mexico. The new environment is difficult for Luca, who finds relief only in his golden trumpet. In a dream, the young musician is transported to his former home where there is joy, music, and laughter. Upon waking he realizes that music and family can bridge his present and past and perhaps his future. This bilingual text brims with homesickness but also optimism. Fanciful illustrations reflect Luca's mood dark shades when he's troubled and bright yellows when he's encouraged. Together, the narrative and images offer hope for readers experiencing this difficult situation and empathy for those who aren't. Back matter includes an author's note further discussing deportation.--Shelley M. Diaz Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Publishers Weekly In this frank account, Girls cocreator Dunham (Not That Kind of Girl) takes an unsparing look at the physical and emotional costs of her first decade in the spotlight. Pre-Girls chapters hum with the energy of a downtown N.Y.C. memoir, with Dunham furiously writing scripts, casually collaborating with the pre-fame Safdie brothers, and having questionable sex. After Girls enters the picture in 2011, the book’s three central relationships click into focus: the hot-and-cold one between Dunham and her Girls cocreator Jenni Konner; the gradually devastating one between Dunham and her then boyfriend Jack Antonoff; and the mercurial, often-debilitating one between Dunham and her own body. As she recounts surgery after surgery seeking relief from a complex set of chronic conditions including Ehlers Danlos syndrome and endometriosis, Dunham wincingly takes stock of all the ways she ignored physical, emotional, and spiritual signals to slow down, pushing through her pain until she developed an addiction to Klonopin, broke up with Konner and Antonoff, and moved to London to rebuild her life. Though the subject matter is heavy, Dunham’s self-deprecating humor and penchant for gossipy anecdotes provide crucial counterweight. Readers put off by the author’s past brashness need not apply, but fans of Girls and Dunham’s previous book will be more than satisfied. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Apr.)

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School Library Journal : Gr 5–8—Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. Bod's love for his graveyard family and vice versa provide the emotional center, amid suspense, spot-on humor, and delightful scene-setting. The child Bod's behavior is occasionally too precocious to be believed, and a series of puns on the name Jack render the villain a bit less frightening than he should be, though only momentarily. Aside from these small flaws, however, Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family.—Megan Honig, New York Public Library

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Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA Distributed by Syndetic Solutions Inc. Terms

Publishers Weekly: This powerfully written but bleak narrative is a mesmerizing tale of the American Dream gone terribly awry. Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force under the Shah, now lives in exile with his wife and teenage son near San Francisco. Working on a road crew as a "garbage soldier" by day and as a deli clerk by night, Behrani is obsessed with restoring his family to the position of glittering wealth and prestige it once enjoyed. At a county auction, he sinks his savings into a bungalow seized for non-payment of taxes, and quickly moves his family into it, planning to resell the house at a sizable profit. But when the house's previous occupant, recovering coke addict Kathy Lazaro, resurfaces with valid claims for repossession, Behrani's plan begins to unravel, and with it his tightly controlled facade of composure. Tensions between Lazaro and Behrani quickly escalate into violence, as Lazaro's lover, a married police officer with a weak spot for lost causes, decides to take matters into his own hands. The book's horrifying denouement offers readers a searing study in the wages of pride. Dubus (Bluesman) writes with an authority regarding the American lower middle class that is reminiscent of Russell Banks and Richard Ford, and his limber imagination is capable of drawing the inner lives of three very different main characters with such compassion that readers will find their sympathies hopelessly divided. If the tragedy that he so skillfully orchestrates cries out to be leavened with a little less desperation and some quiet glimpse of hope, the keenly perceptive and moving narrative is proof that the son and namesake of one of our most talented writers has embarked on a dazzling career in his own right.

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