The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

-#1 book of all my summer reads.

-"OK, I admit it.  I've got a huge crush on this book." -Author, Sonya Sones

-This book had me from the first paragraph.

-I want to savor this magical book.  It's almost as if I'm the only one who has read it and loved it.  I'm afraid to share it for fear that other people won't love it as much as I do or might even criticize it for some reason or another and that might break the spell.

-"Jandy Nelson's story of grief somehow manages to be an enchantment, a celebration, a romance---without forsaking the rock-hard truths of loss." - Author, Sara Zarr

-I'm in love...with a book, with a story.

-My heart was broken and repaired, over and over.

-A love story and a romance.  The love of a sister for her sister and the awakening of young love amidst all the grief.

Most of the above quotes were written by me as if they were the quotes on the back of book taken from famous people. I, obviously, loved this book.  It is a celebration of love on so many levels and phenomenal for the depth of understanding it portrays of grief and loss.  My favorite bits were the poems that Lennie scattered everywhere as a tribute and in memory of her dear sister, Bailey. I felt like I was reading a song while somehow soaring above the earth.  I've already reread half the book and I'm thinking of starting it again once I get down clutching it to my chest.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"...The grief was a room filled

with hungry, desperate light.

We clapped for nineteen years

of a world with Bailey in it. "  p. 23

"When I get to the path, I take off, trying to outrun the heartache that is chasing me down." p.92

"I'm afraid to open m eyes, but I do, and he's standing at the end of the bed looking at me---and army of ninja-cupids...draw their bows and release---arrows fly at me from every which way." p.264

"A flock of hysterically happy birds bursts out of my chest and into the world." p.268

"I try to fend off the oceanic sadness but I can't.  It's such a colossal effort not to be haunted by what's lost, but to be enchanted by what was." p.275