The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon tells the story of Natasha Kingsley, an undocumented immigrant teenage girl who is about to be deported, and Daniel Bae, a boy about to go to an interview with Yale University, a school he doesn’t want to attend but does so in order to please his parents. They end up meeting inside a record store. Following that encounter, they continue to spend time during the day together, poet Daniel trying to convince a ‘cold and calculating’ Natasha that love is indeed real. It’s a heartwarming story that shows how close two can become in just the span of a few hours, and the individual struggles of each character is shown as well.

The story is told from the perspective of multiple characters, each chapter switching. Occasionally a perspective that isn’t Natasha’s or Daniel’s will show up. It’s an interesting break from the regular narrative that lets readers know a little more about a character that briefly shows up in the main storyline, giving the readers a reminder that there are all these individual stories going on during the main one being told.

It also gets into the racial struggles that the characters must go through, Natasha’s race being a clear issue to Daniel’s father, who happens to run a Black hair care store, and the many issues that Daniel faces due to being Asian-American, including ones caused by his own brother Charles.

Overall, it’s a very cute story with certain heavy aspects that get readers on the edge of their seats, wondering if Natasha and Daniel will be able to beat the odds and stay together, despite forces pulling them in completely different life directions.

Review by: Alanah C.

Alanah is a sophomore at Palisades Charter High School.

—Ruth Chung, Young Adult Librarian, Westwood Branch Library