Nigeria Jones

Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize–winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net.

"Prescient and sobering, Zoboi’s book is a vital story for young readers in a tumultuous time.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)“The sympathetic, nuanced portrayal of this young man will have readers holding out hope until the novel’s end.” — Horn Book (starred review)Praise for PUNCHING THE AIR: “This book will be Walter Dean Myers’s Monster for a new generation of teens. An important, powerful, and beautiful novel that should be an essential purchase for any library that serves teens.” — School Library Journal (starred review)"Awardworthy. Soul-stirring. A must-read.”  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"A mesmerizing novel-in-verse. The poems—sharp, uninhibited and full of metaphors and sensory language—quickly establish Amal's voice, laying bare the anger, despair, hope and talent it holds. Amal's experience of abuse by the system, as well as his peers', incites raw outrage, but his artistic self-expression offers a subtle yet significant kind of hope. It is a hope borne of anger, that knows the full depths of injustice and still dreams of a better future.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)"A wrenching novel whose story, told in verse, is both urgent and heartbreakingly familiar....Amal’s name is the Arabic word for 'hope.' That is what this book ultimately offers, too. Everyone should read it." — New York Times Book Review“Zoboi tells a singular story of a singular girl, and Nigeria Jones opens wide and welcoming arms to readers.” — BookPage (starred review)“This book calls for deep discussions about the roles of Black women in the Black freedom struggle as well as the role of young people in these movements…. An opportunity for teen readers to begin grappling with their own ideas of what the revolution looks like.” — Horn Book (starred review)"The bravest book--about the bravest teenage girl doing the absolute bravest things--I've read in a long time. That we would all learn to move, think, live, and LOVE as fervently as Nigeria Jones." — Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin“Through Nigeria’s powerfully resonant first-person voice, Zoboi’s mesmerizing storytelling soars.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)“An elaborate structure and ideological boldness truly set Zoboi’s novel apart.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books“An emotional journey…. It is through this story that we see the multilayered truth of Black identity.” — ALA Booklist“[Nigeria’s] personal journey toward emotional and radical self-honesty shapes this superb story.… A thoughtful reflection of real multilayered freedom struggles within Black diasporic communities. A strong declaration for supporting, loving, and empowering all Black women everywhere.” — Kirkus Reviews“Zoboi artfully introduces each chapter through an epigraph, each a quote either altered to center or by Black women, and structures the book by article, ultimately creating the Constitution of Nigeria Jones. These stylistic choices echo the themes of Black girlhood and intersectionality seamlessly woven throughout Nigeria’s story. A beautifully constructed portrait of one young woman growing into her own that will move readers to deeply consider the very same questions Nigeria must answer for herself.” — School Library Journal (starred review)“Zoboi and Salaam together craft a powerful indictment of institutional racism and mass incarceration through the imagined experience of Amal, a Black, Muslim 16-year-old facing imprisonment.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Punching the Air highlights that wrongful convictions, the school-to-prison pipeline and the fear mongering of Black bodies is etched in the United States Constitution itself, ironically in the Thirteenth Amendment that criminalizes slavery but simultaneously creates an entirely new system of enslavement: the American prison system. It is not easy to break these topics down to adults, never mind children. But Punching the Air does so effectively through verse that feels honest and clear." — USA Today“Amal’s voice is often poetic and compelling, and the details of life in NYC juvie are laceratingly vivid. An engaging and accessible read sure to provoke discussion, perhaps in conjunction with a factual exploration of Salaam’s own experiences or in partnership with Myers’ Monster.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books"To read Nigeria Jones is to have the honor of being invited to one of the most unapologetically Black, womanist, and liberating worlds ever penned. Ibi Zoboi has masterfully woven together a story that explores the dynamism of marginalized people who have often been erased from American literary canon. Through Nigeria and other deeply compelling characters, Ibi has written a love letter to any and everyone who has yearned to feel seen, fought for survival, and been driven by the hope of freedom. If there is a list of essential books for young people, Nigeria Jones MUST be on it." — Frederick Joseph, New York Times Bestselling Author"Nigeria Jones is a passionate, powerful, and fearless novel about grief and discovering one's own true identity. A brilliant coming-of-age declaration." — Malinda Lo, National Book Award–winning author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club"Nigeria Jones is an unwavering proclamation of Black girlhood that stretches far beyond surface ideas of strength, tenacity, and survival. This is a story that plunges head first into the nuances of a teenage girl's personhood, while contemplating what it means to be seen as a small part of a whole. Ibi Zoboi offers a bold meditation on what it means to question your place in, while being critical of, a community that has always been your home. Here, she asks: what does a Black girl do with her guilt and her grief in the midst of all her power?"  — Candice Iloh, author of National Book Award finalist Every Body Looking