Every Body Looking is a novel in verse, memoir-style, about the author’s struggles with growing up in poverty and trying to make something of herself. She struggles with religion, sexuality, and grappling with the fact that she has to fight a system that was designed to oppose her at every direction.
Justification:
Having a robust collection of novels-in-verse is extremely beneficial to a library’s collection. Many students that struggle with a full-size novel will appreciate the short and simple nature of this novel in verse, but will enjoy the difficult themes.
Reader Response:
This novel is a fairly easy one to read. The prose is simple, the poems are short, and it is broken up into chapters that do not take very long to get through. The novel more than makes up for it in depth of themes, however. This novel is a great experience in stepping into someone else's shoes. Candice, the speaker of the poems, has lived a life completely different from mine, but I found myself relating to some of the issues she deals with in the novel. Being a first-generation student and finding yourself after growing up in a strict environment is extremely difficult. The way Iloh perfectly encapsulated those feelings with such simple phrases was very meaningful to me. This is a great novel for students of all types. This may be a great one to use for reluctant students as an entry-level introduction to poetry.
Iloh, C. (2020). Every body looking. Dutton Books.
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