;)
Other Words for Home
Author Jasmine Warga, whose immigrant father was born in Jordan to Palestinian refugees, has explained that as a child, she faced a lack of representation—until post-9/11 depictions burst onto the media scene with largely pejorative views of Muslims and Arabs. Growing up with both invisibility and Islamophobia influenced Warga’s desire to increase positive Arab American representation through her own writing, including Other Words for Home (2019). Twelve-year-old Jude and her family live in a coastal town in Syria, but as the Syrian Civil War unfolds, she and her mother flee to join her uncle’s family in Cincinnati, Ohio. School, language, friendships, food, and even family life are rendered unfamiliar and challenging with the move. In free verse, Jude spins lyrical lines that convey her struggle to adjust to life in the United States as a Muslim and an Arab.
-NK