Every Body Looking

Finalist, National Book Awards 2020 for Young People's Literature

ISBN 9780525556206
Dutton Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
Candice Iloh

Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer, teaching artist, and youth educator. They have performed their work around the country and they are a graduate of Howard University and hold an MFA in writing from Lesley University. More about this author >

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From the publisher:

Key moments of Ada’s young life—her mother’s descent into addiction, her father’s attempts to create a home for his American daughter more like the one he knew in Nigeria, her first year at a historically black college—are weaved together into a luminous and inspiring verse novel.

Judges Citation

The complexity and joy of being caught between worlds is captured in Candice Iloh’s verse novel Every Body Looking. The daughter of a Black American mother and Nigerian father headed to a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), Ada is torn between their disappointment and high expectations. In college, she forges her own path as a dancer, friend, and queer young woman in love. This is a lyrical tale of liberation and life through (e)motion.

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