I'll Give You the Sun: List 2: The Invisible Museum (2)

by Jandy Nelson
Jude and Noah are talented, artistic, impassioned teenagers—and fraternal twins. In this novel, they take turns telling the story of how their family falls apart—and comes together again.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1: The Invisible Museum (1)-The History of Luck (1), List 2: The Invisible Museum (2), List 3: The History of Luck (2), List 4: The Invisible Museum (3)-The History of Luck (4)
15 words 134 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bas relief
    sculpture that projects only slightly from the background
    This time it was a big round woman, done bas relief, like always, except she was halfway turned into a bird—so incredible it made my head vibrate.
  2. palomino
    a horse of light tan or golden color
    “Don’t know, buddy. Nobody seems to know,” I say under my breath, while I focus on the movers, the same two guys as yesterday—not colorless, oh man, so not colorless—horses, both of them, I already decided, one chestnut, one palomino.
  3. periphery
    the outside boundary or surface of something
    I’m about to bolt back into the woods, when, in my periphery, I catch some kind of movement on the other side of the building, then hear the same crunching noises as the footsteps retreat.
  4. gusto
    vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment
    I say it a few more times, louder and with more and more gusto, then realize I’m talking with an English accent to a bunch of trees and go back to my spot.
  5. cerulean
    bright blue in color, like a clear sky
    The sky’s gone blue: azure, the ocean bluer: cerulean, the trees are swirls of every hella freaking green on earth and bright thick eggy yellow is spilling over everything.
  6. plummet
    drop sharply
    Did he ask me something? I think he did. The IQ’s plummeting.
  7. modus operandi
    an unvarying or habitual method or procedure
    Except when I glance at him, I see that his face has bricked up and I can tell running away is not part of his modus operandi.
  8. bulbous
    rounded and bulging
    She’s twirling a string of hair around her index finger so tightly the tip’s ballooning red and bulbous like it might burst.
  9. rollicking
    given to merry frolicking
    “I mean, I thought you were going to slice her in half with the window!” This sends him on a rollicking ride of hysterics that I soon find myself on too.
  10. inquisition
    a severe interrogation
    I nod. The flashlight’s bright on his face. It’s an inquisition.
  11. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    At the sight of us, Courtney leaps from her perch, lands with hands on hips, creating a pink-bikini-clad human roadblock in our path, thereby cutting short my diatribe about the genius of the blobfish, the world’s most underrated waste-of-space animal, forever in the shadow of the three-toed sloth.
  12. placid
    calm and free from disturbance
    Her hair is calm, a placid yellow lake around her.
  13. aback
    by surprise
    Her giggling takes me aback. There’s nothing giggly about Heather usually. She’s the opposite; hanging out with her is like sitting in an empty church.
  14. eviscerate
    remove the entrails of
    I don't do anything.
    I can't do anything.
    I’ve been eviscerated.
  15. clandestine
    conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
    From behind me, I hear someone with a slurring English accent say, “If it isn’t the clandestine artist.”
Created on Mon Jan 01 17:12:20 EST 2018 (updated Wed Jul 30 10:39:56 EDT 2025)

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