Jude is like any other teenage girl: she has a best friend with whom she does everything, she loves snacking on her favourite teatime treats (to the detriment of dinner), and she adores movies, fancying herself a doppelgänger for a glamorous American movie star. You will make anywhere beautiful.Other Words for Home (ages 10+) is a lyrical, thoughtful and ultimately hopeful middle grade, verse novel about the flight of a young Syrian girl and her mother from their conflict-torn homeland. I can’t wait to read what she writes next. The fact that I was able to feel how Jude felt, shows how amazing Warga’s writing is throughout the novel. As a first-generation kid, I saw myself through Laya wishing I was Jude. There are things immigrant kids face that no one will ever feel.

When violence continues in Syria, word travels back to the States and makes Jude a target. She decides to try out for her school play, she plays with her cousin’s American friends, she finds her words in English with a little more confidence. Throughout the novel, Jude finds herself calling America home a little easier. Though they have different journeys, they are able to find common threads within their friendship. Since her family is from the Middle East as well, Jude feels at home when she is around her. Using Jude’s staples as a category label in America, Warga shows us how America thinks.Īt school, Jude meets Layla, a girl like her who is first-generation. Warga uses Jude’s notable cultural shock experiences to paint a picture of what it’s like to feel different in America. It isn’t until Jude comes to America that she realizes she is different. Jude’s older siblings want to rise and make a change while Jude’s mother tells her they’re going to America to visit her brother. The world around her may be changing, but Jude and her friend Fatima still love watching movies and talking about being actresses. When we meet Jude, she is happy in her home. Look, I know what you’re thinking and yes, it’s a coincidence that the main character is named Jude like my dog but the book called my name before I knew the main character’s name. Jasmine Warga not only slowed me down she also made me feel like Jude. But when I read a book in verse, I’m slowed down by the author in a hypnotizing way. Like a snap-your-fingers-and-shake-your-head-like damn that was good. Sometimes it rhymes, sometimes it blows you away like slam poetry. Now, if you haven’t read a book in verse, it’s kinda like a lyrical way of telling a story. It’s a story about a Syrian girl who comes to America with her mother told in verse. Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga is a masterpiece. Don’t let the MG (middle grade) category fool you.

Other words for home author