A Poetic Story of One Muslim Girl Who Must Leave Her Home

Jude never wanted to leave Syria. She especially never wanted to leave her brother and father. But when her hometown starts breaking out in violence, she and her mother travel to the United States to live with her mother’s brother in Cincinnati. She and her mother live with her uncle, his wife and her cousin, a girl the same age as she is. But Jude struggles to make herself at home in America. Everything is too big, too loud, or too fast. She struggles with attending school in a completely different language. There, she’s that “Muslim girl.” And she’s called “Middle Eastern,” a term Jude has never identified with before now.

Jude is a refugee who’s forced to leave her home to survive. Throughout the novel, all Jude wants to do is go home. But as time goes by, she begins to suspect that isn’t possible. Jude is brave just as much as she is tender. A scene I will never forget is when she goes into a Lebanese restaurant for the first time in months, and she realizes the room smells like home. In another scene, Jude comes of age and chooses to wear a headscarf. When her family and friends see her scarf, they celebrate. It’s a time of rejoicing, even in the darkness they have experienced.

Jude’s story gives other refugee kids a chance to see themselves in a character. All the struggles of fitting in at a new school, learning a new language, or adapting to a new culture come alive on the page in such a special way. And for kids who aren’t refugees, they can see, perhaps for the first time, what it feels like to flee your country to make your home in a new one.

Other Words for Home is a poetry novel. And as someone with zero talent for poetry, I have so much respect for poets and the incredible work that they do. And in my mind, turning poetry into a novel for middle grade is like the perfect combination of so many things that I love. There are so many incredible moments in this book that are enhanced by its form. Never does the text feel gimmicky or forced. Warga strikes such an incredible balance of form and substance.