The Sky is Everywhere Analysis

The imaginary town of Clover, California fits its name very well. It sounds a little hippie-ish, right? And indeed, Clover is a place where it's completely normal for Lennie to be named after John...

Imagine if this story wasn't in Lennie's voice, if it had a distant narrator that only described her actions—as in her dating-two-boys-at-once-and-lying-about-it actions. Admit it: You'd think sh...

Sure, this is a love story, but the climax isn't when Lennie and Joe Fontaine finally lock lips—it's when Lennie and Gram finally talk to each other. The only way the Walker family can begin to h...

This is Lennie's world and we're just living in it (okay, we're reading through it, but whatever). And since Lennie is earnestly trying to get her bearings following the devastating death of her ol...

Nelson groups words together in ways you'd never expect. Lennie is attracted to boys "WTF-edly" (8.27), and Lennie and Bailey go "road-reading" (3.8), walking along their street while reading books...

When Lennie first kisses Joe, she flashes back to a time when she was younger. She was lying on the ground, telling Uncle Big she was looking at the sky, and then Uncle Big said that the idea of th...

The Sky is Everywhere almost has two endings: a prose ending and a final poem. The prose ending shows Lennie leaving Gram's letters to Paige at Bailey's gravesite, then hurling the Lennie plant ove...

This is a straightforward, let-it-all-out story from the point of view of a modern-day grieving teenager, so you won't have to play guessing games about what the characters are thinking or feeling....

Sad PlantWhen the book opens, Lennie's sister Bailey has been dead for a month, and Lennie's Gram and Uncle Big are convinced that an ailing houseplant represents her inner life. Lennie is definite...

This author's definitely a school-lover. Jandy Nelson has three degrees, and is considering going for a fourth. (Source)Nelson is a literary agent, a profession which she credits with drumming into...

There's no actual sex in this book, but since it's about a girl who juggles two teenage boy love interests, there are tons of hormones. Lennie's relationship with Toby has a fast, out-of-control in...

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1.7; 2.27, 2.44, 2.44; 3.8; 6.23-25, 6.36; 9.17; 18.27; 31.54-55; 32.18-22; 33.10-17, 33.43; 37.1)Romeo and Juliet (1.17; 2.46; 16.24; 32.18)Sartre, Nause...