Jandy Nelson

About Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson was born in New York City and moved to California at age twelve; she now lives in San Francisco. She earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and later studied at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Before publishing her own novels, she spent thirteen years working as a literary agent at Manus & Associates, representing other writers' books while quietly building her own.

Her debut novel, The Sky Is Everywhere (2010), follows a teenage girl navigating grief after her sister's sudden death, and was named to YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list and translated into more than twenty languages. She followed it with I'll Give You the Sun (2014) and, after a decade-long gap, When the World Tips Over (2024).

I'll Give You the Sun

I'll Give You the Sun tells the story of twins Noah and Jude through two interlocking timelines, one narrated by each sibling, that together reveal how a family tragedy pulled them apart. The novel was a New York Times bestseller and was optioned for film by Warner Bros. It won the 2015 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature, a Stonewall Book Award Honor for its portrayal of a young gay character's first love, and the Josette Frank Award, and it appeared on Time magazine's list of the ten best YA books.

Book Challenges

Despite its critical acclaim, I'll Give You the Sun has been one of the more frequently challenged titles among recent Printz winners, recorded in this catalog as challenged or banned across 7 states and 23 districts. Objections have centered on its frank depictions of teenage sexuality and its same-sex romantic storyline, placing it within the broader pattern of challenges directed at LGBTQ+ representation in young adult fiction even as the novel continues to be honored for its craft.