The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

thefalseprince

When Conner, a nobleman and regent to King Eckbert of Carthya, rounds up orphans, Sage, Roden, Tobias and Latamer from around the kingdom, the boys have no idea what he has in store for them. Conner has a plan to save the kingdom of Carthya.  He plans to pass one of these orphans off as the missing and presumed dead Prince Jaron.  Conner pits the boys against each other.  The boys have a short amount of time to learn how to act like a royal. To lose this contest means certain death; after all Conner cannot have witnesses to speak out against his treasonous plan.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Ill Give You the Sun_

Jude and Noah are twins. They share an intense empathetic connection and are very close at age thirteen.  Jude is reckless, rebellious and communicates with the ghost of Grandma Sweetwine while Noah is awkward, isolated and thinks and feels in color. Both are artistically talented, and their mother has hopes of the twins going to California School of the Arts for high school. But at sixteen, events in their lives have divided and changed them. They are not themselves and the twins barely tolerate each other.

Told with alternating narrators, each twin narrates their tale. Noah describing their lives at thirteen and Jude picking up the story three years later. I’ll Give You the Sun is the 2015 Printz Award winner for excellence in Young Adult Literature.  (mature read)