Other Words for Home 🖋Jasmine Warga

"'You should care about your country too', he says.

'I do', I say, but what I mean is that I care about my brother and my baba and my mama and I just want to live in a country where we can all have dinner again without shouting about our president or rebels and revolution."

🏠 Jude loved the coastal town in Syria that she lived in; the smell of jasmine and saltwater in the air, the long stretches of the beach and her father’s store where he sold candy bars, soft drinks and magazines to tourists. But as a revolution arose and danger stood right around the corner, Jude was forced to leave her war torn country with her pregnant mother, leaving her brother and father behind, to her uncles house in the United States. The hustle and bustle of Cincinnati, the whole new title of 'middle eastern' that she and the things that were just called 'normal' back at home were now given and the prejudices she now faces being one of the few muslim girls in her school frighten her, but this new life also brings her new possibilities, friends and a chance to show the world who she really is.

📝A few intriguing details:

📝One of my most favourite parts about this book is the relationship between Jude and her brother; how even as they stand on two different sides of the Atlantic they are able to love each other and understand that their different dreams and ideals do not change the love they share.

📝Another interesting thing about this book is that this story is told in free verse. This means that its written in a format like a free verse poem.