The Sky Is Everywhere [Hardcover]

Jandy Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2010

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up—When her older sister dies from an arrhythmia, 17-year-old Lennie finds that people are awkward around her, including her best friend. While dealing with her conflicted feelings toward her sister's boyfriend, her anguish over Bailey's unexpected death, and her sudden curiosity about sex, Lennie must also cope with her unresolved feelings about her mother, who left when Lennie was an infant. Debut author Nelson expertly and movingly chronicles the myriad, roller-coaster emotions that follow a tragedy, including Lennie's reluctance to box up her sister's belongings and her guilt over bursts of happiness. The portrayal of the teen's state of mind is believable, as are the romanticizing of her absent mother and the brief scenes of underage drinking and sexual exploration. Chapters are typically anchored by brief snippets of Lennie's writings. This is a heartfelt and appealing tale. Girls who gobble up romantic and/or weep-over fiction will undoubtedly flock to this realistic, sometimes funny, and heartbreaking story.—Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA
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From Booklist

Lennie has always been the companion pony to her sister Bailey’s race horse. When Bailey dies suddenly while rehearsing the lead in Romeo and Juliet, Lennie is thrust into the spotlight. A normally reserved band geek who reads Wuthering Heights like a manifesto, Lennie is not prepared to deal with her grief. Nor is she equipped to confront the affection she feels for her dead sister’s fiancé. Adding to her emotional roller coaster is the gorgeous, musically gifted new boy in town who is clearly in love with her. Lennie is sympathetic, believable, and complex. Readers will identify with her and root for her to finally make the first steps toward healing. Nelson incorporates poems, written by Lennie and left for the wind to carry away, that help readers delve deeper into her heart. Bonus: teens unfamiliar with Wuthering Heights will likely want to find out what all the fuss is about. A story of love, loss, and healing that will resonate with readers long after they have finished reading. Grades 8-11. --Shauna Yusko

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Dial; 1 edition (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803734956
• ISBN-13: 978-0803734951
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jandy Nelson has a BA from Cornell, an MFA in poetry from Brown, and another MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Jandy's a literary agent, a published poet and a devout romantic. The Sky Is Everywhere is her first novel. The Los Angeles Times calls it: "unusually rich with both insight and breathless romance," The Denver Post: "a brilliant piercing story," and The Daily Beast says: "Those who think young-adult books can't be as literary, rich and mature as their adult counterparts will be disabused of that notion after reading The Sky Is Everywhere." It has been translated into thirteen languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, March 10, 2010

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sky Is Everywhere (Hardcover)

Gold Star Award Winner!

Lennie and Bailey are sisters, best friends, everything to each other. Their mother took off when they were just babies, which Gram has always attributed to the "restless gene" that runs in the family.

When Bailey, vivacious and fiery Bailey, dies of a heart arrhythmia while rehearsing for Romeo & Juliet, Lennie is utterly lost. Without Bailey's guidance, smothering affection, and her untameable spirit, Lennie doesn't know what to do. She has always stood at the sidelines, content to catch just a few rays of Bailey's endless radiance.

Though Lennie can't help but wallow in her grief, the rest of the world carries on, and ultimately, so must she. On her first day back to school she meets the most enchanting boy on earth - fabulously multi-talented musician, Joey Fontaine. Complicating the situation is Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, who turns to Lennie for comfort. In sharing their despair, seeds of attraction manifest and Lennie must struggle to sort through a tumult of emotions roaring inside her.

Forced to come out of her shell, Lennie starts to see how absolutely beautiful yet wondrously confusing life can be. In her contemplation of life and death, Lennie must completely reconsider what it means to truly live.

For the first time in her life, Lennie is all alone - center stage. Whether she is ready or not, it is time for her solo.

Jandy Nelson's debut novel is a heart-wrenching tale of love and forgiveness that will make you laugh and cry all in the same sentence. THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE ties themes of wanderlust, betrayal, and forgiveness in a love story more complex than most young adult authors dare to concoct.

Reviewed by: Amber Gibson

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughing and Crying, You know it's the Same Release, March 22, 2010

By 

Mark Routhier "mettlemark" (SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sky Is Everywhere (Hardcover)

Jandy Nelson keeps passion and romance alive. I could not put this book down. From the crazy Northern Californian family dealing with the loss of their precocious guy-magnet daughter, to the blossoming of her younger sister who was happy to live in her older sister's shadow, to the expressions of mad grief through the sharp awakening of the senses, this story helped me to understand the axis of grief and romance in the body of insane longing. I was laughing out loud and then crying in the turn of a sentence. Extraordinary. Literary. I did not want it to end.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Angieville: THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, March 9, 2010

By 

Angela Thompson "Angiegirl" (Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sky Is Everywhere (Hardcover)

I'm pretty sure I originally became aware of Jandy Nelson's debut novel THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE when my trusty fellow Team Gale-er Adele of Persnickety Snark reviewed it last month. As she frequently does, Adele made me want to read the book right away by stating,

"The Sky is Everywhere is an all encompassing study of grief, the strength of a sisterly bond, the power of attraction and love and ultimately the importance of being true to one's self."

I got a good vibe and immediately noted down the release date and put it on my TBR list. Then I was fortunate enough to win an ARC from the publisher in one of those awesome blink-and-you'll-miss-it Twitter giveaways. Thanks so much, Penguin tweeps! I blew through it in two short sessions and have been thinking about it on and off ever since.

Lennie Walker's life is a little unorthodox. Raised, along with her big sister Bailey, by her highly eccentric grandmother and uncle after her mother hit the road and didn't look back, Lennie's life has been pretty good all things considered. If a bit outside the box. Her grandmother tends a garden like unto the one in Eden, paints willowy green ladies on every available surface of their house, and believes one of her house plants is mystically linked to Lennie. When it sickens, Lennie sickens. When it thrives, she thrives. Her Uncle Big is the town lothario. Five failed marriages down and counting, he has a voice like God's, a marijuana habit, and a strange obsession with raising the dead. The insect dead, to be exact. But when Baily suddenly dies, Lennie's life is thrown off the tracks and she finds herself unable to cope without her larger-than-life sister's lead to follow. Bailey's boyfriend Toby is in a similar situation and the two of them find themselves drawn to each other for that new and unhappy bond they share. Even though they didn't really have much use for each other before. Bailey was the one thing they had in common and now they cling to each other as a means of not losing her completely. When she returns to school and band practice and her best friend Sarah, Lennie still fails to deal with life as it is now. And then Joe Fontaine comes into her life. Gorgeous, dorky, perpetually smiling Joe with his questions and his wanting to know. Why she climbs trees at lunchtime, why she plays the clarinet like a virtuoso yet determinedly sits second chair, and most of all why she's so sad.

Starting out I wasn't so sure. It's hard to get a grip on Lennie and her past right off the bat. And when things start escalating between her and Toby you do begin to wonder about this girl and whether or not she's going to fall all over herself throughout the novel and whether or not you'll be able to watch the train wreck. But then Jandy Nelson's lovely writing steps in and gracefully does away with your fears. And how could I not sympathize with a fellow clarinet player? I was the cliché band geek myself. And even though I got out before hitting high school (and marching band), I have always had a soft spot for my band geek clarinet girl counterparts in literature. That's part of why I enjoyed Lauren in Bloom so much. But Lennie's up against a whole mess of challenges I never faced. Like suddenly having the hots for my dead sister's boyfriend. And having him reciprocate in a seriously unhealthy way. But Nelson's almost rhythmic writing carries the reader through on a swirl of high notes and low and I sympathized with Lennie on so many levels by the time the song wound to a close. The zany characters and surprising humor sprinkled throughout the story played just the right counterpoint to the dirge of grief and regret that threaten to drown Lennie. With every fragment of memory she scrawled down on scraps of paper and the sides of coffee cups, my heart hurt for her. And with every encounter with the book's great lifesaver--Joe Fontaine--and her extremely likable grandmother and uncle, I wanted her to make it more. A favorite passage (one of many):

--

I find Gram, who is twirling around the living room with her sage wand like an overgrown fairy. I tell her that I'm sorry, but I don't feel well and need to go upstairs.
She stops mid-whirl. I know she senses trouble, but she says, "Okay, sweet pea." I apologize to everyone and say good night as nonchalantly as possible.
Joe follows me out of the room, and I decide it might be time to join a convent, just cloister up with the Sisters for awhile.
He touches my shoulder and I turn around to face him. "I hope what I said in the woods didn't freak you out or something . . . hope that's not why you're crashing . . ."
"No, no." His eyes are wide with worry. I add, "It made me pretty happy, actually." Which of course is true except for the slight problem that immediately after hearing his declaration, I made a date with my dead sister's boyfriend to do God knows what!
"Good." He brushes his thumb on my cheek, and again his tenderness startles me. "Because I'm going crazy, Lennie." Bat. Bat. Bat. And just like that, I'm going crazy too because I'm thinking Joe Fontaine is about to kiss me. Finally.
Forget the convent.
Let's get this out of the way: My previously nonexistent floozy-factor is blowing right off the charts.
"I didn't know you knew my name," I say.
"So much you don't know about me, Lennie." He smiles and takes his index finger and presses it to my lips, leaves it there until my heart lands on Jupiter: three seconds, then removes it, turns around, and heads back into the living room. Whoa--well, that was either the dorkiest or sexiest moment of my life, and I'm voting for sexy on account of my standing here dumbstruck and giddy, wondering if he did kiss me after all.
I am totally out of control.
I do not think this is how normal people mourn.

--

Geez, I love that last line. It's so pregnant with everything that's going on in that girl. A moving and delightful read and recommended for fans of Julia Hoban, Sonya Sones, and Lisa Ann Sandell.

A Note: THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE is been compared to Sarah Dessen's novels, but I've noticed several early reviews seem to indicate Dessen fans are not that enthused with the comparison. Whereas those of us who don't seem to connect with Dessen's work find Nelson's book both fresh and compelling. There are, of course, exceptions but I'm interested to see if this trend continues or if it's merely conjecture on my part.