Ibi Zoboi
Author of Pride
About the Author
Image credit: http://ibizoboi.net/about
Works by Ibi Zoboi
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America (2019) — Editor; Contributor — 652 copies, 15 reviews
Under the Needle's Eye 3 copies
The Farming of Gods 1 copy
Old Flesh Song 1 copy
Associated Works
A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope (2020) — Contributor — 382 copies, 11 reviews
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora (2021) — Contributor — 177 copies, 3 reviews
Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors and Teens on the Dark Side of Love (2018) — Contributor — 69 copies, 1 review
Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology (2024) — Contributor — 58 copies, 2 reviews
Fantasy Magazine, Issue 60 (December 2016) - People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue (2016) — Contributor — 32 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 20th Century
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Vermont College of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- author
editor
reporter - Awards and honors
- National Book Award Finalist (American Street, 2017)
New York Times Notable Book (American Street, 2017)
Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (American Street, 2018)
Muriel Becker Award from the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English (American Street, 2019)
The Walter Award, Teen Category (Punching the Air, 2021)
L.A. Times Book Prize, Young Adult Literature (Punching the Air, 2021) (show all 10)
Boston Globe - Horn Book Award Honor, Fiction (Punching the Air, 2021)
Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for Children’s Poetry (Punching the Air, 2021)
Coretta Scott King Book Award Honor (The People Remember, 2022)
Yoto Carnegie Medal, shortlist (Punching the Air, 2022) - Agent
- Ammi-Joan Paquette (Erin Murphy Literary)
- Short biography
- Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist, Pride, a contemporary remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and a middle-grade debut, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She is the editor of Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America. She co-authored the Walter Award and L.A. Times Book Prize-winning novel-in-verse, Punching the Air, with Exonerated Five member, Yusef Salaam. Her debut picture book, The People Remember, received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. Her most recent books include Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, and Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel. Ibi lives in New Jersey with her husband, a high school art teacher, and their three teenage children.
- Nationality
- Haiti
- Birthplace
- Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Maplewood, New Jersey, USA
Members
Reviews
Octavia Estelle Butler dreamed of the stars, and Ibi Zoboi uses prose and poetry to give us what she terms a "biographical constellation" of a Black woman writing science fiction when it was very much still a white boy's club.
Though written for children, the biography offers much for adults familiar with Butler's work may appreciate, from the titles of the sections ("Parable of the Sower," "Parable of the Talents") to lines in the poems referencing Butler's work. Zoboi does a nice job of show more introducing the time frame in which Butler grew up as well as giving biographical details. The poetry was less successful for me, but I just let the words wash over me and went with it. I get from the author's note that she was doing something very intentional with that aspect of the biographical "constellation," and I admit as a very picky poetry reader, it was generally lost on me, though others may appreciate her craft. The final section was interesting, in which Zoboi talks about meeting Butler herself and what affect she had on Zoboi's own writing. Mostly, though, I was left wanting to read a full-length adult biography to answer all the questions I still have. show less
Though written for children, the biography offers much for adults familiar with Butler's work may appreciate, from the titles of the sections ("Parable of the Sower," "Parable of the Talents") to lines in the poems referencing Butler's work. Zoboi does a nice job of show more introducing the time frame in which Butler grew up as well as giving biographical details. The poetry was less successful for me, but I just let the words wash over me and went with it. I get from the author's note that she was doing something very intentional with that aspect of the biographical "constellation," and I admit as a very picky poetry reader, it was generally lost on me, though others may appreciate her craft. The final section was interesting, in which Zoboi talks about meeting Butler herself and what affect she had on Zoboi's own writing. Mostly, though, I was left wanting to read a full-length adult biography to answer all the questions I still have. show less
Okay, I lied, an audiobook to finish the year! I'm getting better but still find concentrating hard, especially when I fall asleep and skip to chapter 9 somehow.
Pride and Prejudice is not my favourite Austen novel, so retellings and modern takes can't hurt me. The Brooklyn setting, with the Benitez family of Haitian-Dominican heritage, worked well - the prejudice was easier to understand, and Zurii's pride is more of the 'have to laugh or you'll cry' variety (when her father accepts a buy show more out offer and the whole family have to leave their two room apartment, I was thinking, 'Girl, move on!' )
All of the major plot points are in there and the translation works well. Darius and Ainsley Darcy are brothers who move into a gentrified townhouse across the street from Zuri and her loud and lively family, and Warren is the creep who took dodgy photos of Darius' young sister Georgia. The narrator, Elizabeth Acevedo, did a fantastic job of bringing brash Zuri to life and sounded very authentic (to me, anyway!), which helped with understanding the novel. show less
Pride and Prejudice is not my favourite Austen novel, so retellings and modern takes can't hurt me. The Brooklyn setting, with the Benitez family of Haitian-Dominican heritage, worked well - the prejudice was easier to understand, and Zurii's pride is more of the 'have to laugh or you'll cry' variety (
All of the major plot points are in there and the translation works well. Darius and Ainsley Darcy are brothers who move into a gentrified townhouse across the street from Zuri and her loud and lively family, and Warren is the creep who took dodgy photos of Darius' young sister Georgia. The narrator, Elizabeth Acevedo, did a fantastic job of bringing brash Zuri to life and sounded very authentic (to me, anyway!), which helped with understanding the novel. show less
I appreciated how very few of the characters were likeable, because even in the original they aren't, we just get caught up in the movie versions of Elizabeth and Darcy and think they are witty and shy, rather than downright rude. I also really liked the perspective of Afro-Latino immigrants living in Brooklyn, as I was unfamiliar with it. I wasn't particularly rooting for our heroes to get together, but you know how it ends.
Fabiola and her mother are on their way from Haiti to move in with her Matante Jo and her cousins, when Fabiola's mother is detained and she is sent on to Detroit without a parent. Thrust into a city where the rules of the streets are largely unknown to her, Fabiola has to make her way, depending on her lwa guides and all her ingenuity to help her family and get her mother back.
This was an intense read that kept me guessing throughout, broke my heart, and put it back together again. Fabiola show more is a great character who clings to her Haitian roots while learning how she is expected to live in America. Her cousins Chant, Pri, and Donna are doing their best to survive, too, and their characters and those of Donna's boyfriend, Dray, and his friend (and Fabiola's maybe-boyfriend) Kasim, are fleshed out especially well in a first-person narrative. You really feel for all the complexity and challenges they all face in the house on the corner of American and Joy Streets. show less
This was an intense read that kept me guessing throughout, broke my heart, and put it back together again. Fabiola show more is a great character who clings to her Haitian roots while learning how she is expected to live in America. Her cousins Chant, Pri, and Donna are doing their best to survive, too, and their characters and those of Donna's boyfriend, Dray, and his friend (and Fabiola's maybe-boyfriend) Kasim, are fleshed out especially well in a first-person narrative. You really feel for all the complexity and challenges they all face in the house on the corner of American and Joy Streets. show less
Lists
Black Authors (1)
VBL Picturebooks (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 16
- Also by
- 12
- Members
- 4,928
- Popularity
- #5,096
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 183
- ISBNs
- 131
- Languages
- 3