Books like The Sun Is Also a Star

Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author. She is best known for writing the 2015 young adult novel Everything, Everything, a New York Times best seller and the basis of a 2017 film of the same name. In 2016, she released The Sun Is Also a Star, a novel that was adapted to a film of the same name.

Yoon grew up in Jamaica and in Brooklyn, New York. She majored in electrical engineering as an undergraduate at Cornell University. Taking a creative writing class as an elective got her "hooked on writing". After graduation, she attended the Master of Creative Writing program at Emerson College.

Yoon worked as a programmer for investment management firms for 20 years before the publication of her first book. She was inspired to write her debut novel, Everything, Everything, after the birth of her biracial daughter. Yoon wanted to write a book that reflected her child on the pages. Her first-time mother worries about protecting her baby from danger gave her the idea to write a story about a 17-year-old girl who needed the same level of protection. It took Yoon three years to write the book, writing early in the mornings while working full-time and raising her infant daughter. Her husband, Korean American graphic designer David Yoon, drew the illustrations.