When You Were Everything

Explore the ways in which Cleo and Layla’s friendship evolves and dissolves. What events, experiences, and relationships impact the characters’ relationship, and how do the girls struggle to acknowledge and support one another? Consider how their misunderstandings and miscommunications ultimately end their connection.

Cleo is close with her father, Cliff Baker. Explore the ways in which this relationship helps her to understand herself. How does the relationship change over the course of the novel, and why? Discuss specific examples from the text to support your interpretation.

When You Were Everything is a coming-of-age novel. What aspects of Cleo’s story usher her out of childhood and into adulthood? What lessons is she forced to learn about her friendships, her family, her world, and herself as she grows up?