Thirteen-year-old Toswiah Green loves her name, not just because it’s unusual, but also because it was the name of her grandmother and her grandmother’s mother. The African American girl lives a picture-perfect life in Denver, Colorado, with her parents and older sister until her dad testifies against two of his fellow police officers who shot and killed an African American teenager. Once her family starts getting death threats, her parents make the difficult decision to enter the Witness Protection Program, and Toswiah is given a completely new identity in a different part of the country. Toswiah’s greatest challenge initially is in losing her name and her best friend, Lulu, with whom she can no longer have any contact. Now known as Eve, she does her best to make friends in her new school, and is especially intrigued by a sophisticated, wise-cracking girl who is also named Toswiah. Her compelling story, told mostly in flashbacks, reveals the slow unraveling of her family, cut off from everything familiar and everyone they know and love, making for a richly complicated backdrop against which the more typical story of a teenager’s search for identity is played out. Winner, CCBC Coretta Scott King Author Award Discussion (Ages 11-14)

A powerfully moving novel from a three-time Newbery Honor-winning author

Evie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy home and a loving grandmother living nearby. Once her name was Toswiah.

Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place and change their identities. But that's not all that has changed. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother leaves teaching behind and clings to a new-found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave.

And Evie, struggling to find her way in a new city where kids aren't friendly and the terrain is as unfamiliar as her name, wonders who she is.

Jacqueline Woodson weaves a fascinating portrait of a thoughtful young girl's coming of age in a world turned upside down

A National Book Award Finalist