Other Words for Home

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga 

This year, my school has embraced the theme empathy. In my role as teacher-librarian, I am searching for books that allow readers to read, feel and understand what it is like to be in a different place, space or position in the world. Viewing the world through a different lens, is, I believe, one of the beginning steps to understanding and empathy. This middle grade novel is just that.

The book begins in Syria, and at the onset of the novel, Jude's family decides it is in their best interest for her and her mother to move to Ohio to live with her uncle, leaving her father and older brother behind. Jude's mother is pregnant, and tensions and threats of violence are escalating in her hometown. At first, America is quite overwhelming for Jude - everything is too fast, bright and loud. She begins to find her place, and make friends at school, despite looking and feeling very different than those around her. However she also discovers she has a label, and encounters prejudice because she is Muslim. Despite this, Cincinnati begins to feel like a place where she belongs.

Written in free verse, this book is one that I will come back to again. It is an important book, one that discusses prejudice, a refugee's experience and the war in Syria. Most middle grade students can relate to the desire to fit in, and Jude's experience in this regard is one that many students will identify with.