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Check out the back of the book to learn more!

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About Kelly Yang KELLY YANG Ever since she was a little girl, Kelly Yang has LOVED telling stories. She tells all kinds of stories - stories about gutsy girls and bold boys, about motels, loan sharks, immigration, poverty, and race. The thing all her stories have in common is they are important, accessible, and filled...

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*purchase Links:

Jude never thought she'd be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind her, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her home town start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.

At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven't quite prepared her for starting school in the U.S. -and her new label of "Middle Eastern," an identity she's never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises-there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.

This lyrical, life-affirming story is about losing and finding home, and most importantly, finding yourself.

" Poetic and powerful...There are so many reasons to read this novel. It's a book about kindness, for one; it sings, for another...And that's Jude. I wanted nothing more than to be her friend and listen to whatever she had to say about life. She deserves to shine in the spotlight, and so does Other Words for Home." (NPR)

"Warga portrays with extraordinary talent the transformation of a family's life before and after the war began in Syria.... Her free-verse narration cuts straight to the bone... [and] confront[s] the difficult realities of being Muslim and Arab in the U.S. Poetic, immersive, hopeful." (Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*)

"From start to finish, Warga's middle-grade debut puts its hands around your heart and holds it...Other Words for Home should find its way into every middle-grade reader's hands." ( Booklist, * starred review*)

[In] this timely book... rhythmic lines distill Jude's deepest emotions.... Warga effectively shows, as she writes in an author's note, that "children who are fleeing from a war zone... want the same things all of us do-love, understanding, safety, a chance at happiness." (Publishers Weekly, * starred review*)

"Told in verse and divided into five sections chronicling Jude's flight from Syria and adjustment to America, this powerful middle grade novel explores the complicated concepts of war and corruption, home, family, belonging, and how, in Jude's own words, "It is strange to feel lucky/for something that is making my heart feel so sad." ( School Library Journal, * starred review*)

"Offers offers a realistic portrait of the strength it takes to move to a new country, as well as of the complicated dynamics between first- and second-generation immigrants." (The Horn Book, *starred review*)

" Other Words For Home is a salve for the world we live in today. It's a hope-filled story that doesn't pander, but instead peels back layers of culture and identity, fear and prejudice, exile and belonging, all wrapped around a young Syrian girl-Jude. Chocked with equal parts fear and moxie, Jude is a heart trying to figure out how to beat outside the body. I ached for, but simultaneously, found that though our stories are different, I her. This is a necessary story. We're lucky to have it in the world."-(Jason Reynolds, award-winning, bestselling author of Ghost and Long Way Down)

"Through Jude's eyes readers see firsthand what it is to leave behind one's beloved home and family as many refugees do every single day. Young readers will laugh with Jude, cry with her, and root for her every step of the way. A beautiful, powerful, and necessary book." ( Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound)

" An emotional, gorgeous book that takes you into the fraught interior life of Jude, a dreamer, actress, daughter and little sister--who is also a Syrian refugee. Told in verse, Jude's story is one that is rarely shared, which makes its relatability that much more powerful. An absolute must-read book." ( Sabaa Tahir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Ember in the Ashes series)

" Other Words for Home is a gorgeously written middle grade novel with words that soar off the page. Told in stunning verse and featuring an effortlessly lovable narrator, this book will be a staple of middle grade shelves for years to come." (Rachel Strolle, Teen Librarian, Glenside Public Library)

"Jasmine Warga's exceptional middle grade debut is a moving story about family, belonging, and the difficulty of straddling two cultures. Told in sure, thoughtful verse, Warga skillfully draws parallels between the political and social climates of both Syria and the U.S. through the eyes of an insightful and relatable main character, Jude." ( Sara Grochowski, Children's Specialist, McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI)

"Other Words for Home is like a family recipe. At the beginning you know that this is cared for, curated, and passed down. There is an heirloom quality to this story and yet it is fresh and modern. Jude's immigrant story is rich and light and full of personality. At the end, Jude has developed her own sense of of home; she is at home with herself. This is not just an immigrant story-it's a LIFE story." ( Amanda Connor, Kids Team Leader, Joseph-Beth Booksellers.)

"Other Words for Home is such an important book and should be required reading for every student at a middle-grade reading level. The character of Jude teaches us empathy as we read what it's like to be a young teenager from Syria trying to fit in in America. She tries to learn the English language while tackling discrimination and classmates unwilling to understand and accept her, including her cousin of the same age. Jasmine Warga has created a story that is both powerful and gentle, big but full of small moments, a happy but sad story that will live in your heart." ( Marilyn Robbins, BookBar, Denver, CO)

china: Beijing Yutian

Czech Republic: Argo

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Jude never thought she'd be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind her, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her home town start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives. At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud.

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Escape From Aleppo by N.H. Senzai Video Book Review

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Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

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Read 5,166 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every d...

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Escape from Aleppo by N. H. Senzai - "Filled with kindness and hope...Heartbreaking...Necessary." -Booklist (starred review) Nadia's family is forced to flee the...

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THE SKY AT OUR FEET | Book Intro with Nadia Hashimi

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1. USE THE RESOURCES PROVIDED TO EXPLORE OUR UNIT 1 BOOK CLUB CHOICES ➡

2. SUBMIT YOUR TOP 3 CHOICES USING THE FORM BELOW! ⬇

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Front Desk by Kelly Yang Intermediate Levine/Scholastic 298 pp.

Front Desk
by Kelly Yang
Intermediate Levine/Scholastic 298 pp.
5/18 978-1-338-15779-6 $16.99
e-book ed. 978-1-338-15780-2 $10.99

Mia Tang, a resourceful and indomitable ten-year-old, takes on front desk duties at the Calivista Motel, where her parents are managers and 24/7 workers. Having been in the States (from China) for only two years, Mia's parents are thrilled to have this job after losing their old restaurant jobs and apartment and needing to live in their car. However, the family's grand dream of a free and prosperous life seems farther away than ever when a series of nightmarish events strikes. The washing machine breaks down. A customer's car is stolen. Mia's mother is beaten by robbers. And what will happen to the Tang family if Mr. Yao, the miserly motel owner, finds out that Mia's parents also have been secretly sheltering recent immigrants? Mia's gradual understanding of racism and prejudice in America and her subsequent activism are at the heart of this triumphant tale. Readers will admire Mia for her audacity and her creativity in finding solutions for seemingly insurmountable situations. Drawing largely on her personal experiences, Yang threads both comedy and social issues through Mia's relatable and entertaining storyline from a few decades ago (the 1990s) and makes it relevant to 2018 America.

From the July/August 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards.

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Front Desk by Kelly Yang Intermediate Levine/Scholastic 298 pp. Front Desk by Kelly YangIntermediate Levine/Scholastic 298 pp.5/18 978-1-338-15779-6 $16.99e-book ed. 978-1-338-15780-2 $10.99 Mia Tang, a resourceful and indomitable ten-year-old, takes on front desk duties at the Calivista Motel, where her parents are managers and 24/7 workers.

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Nadia’s family is forced to flee their home in Aleppo, Syria, when the Arab Spring sparks a civil war in this timely coming-of-age novel ...

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Three different kids. One mission in common: ESCAPE. Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world… Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and […]

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The Sky at Our Feet book. Read 167 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. This #ownvoices novel by bestselling author Nadia Hashimi tell...

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"I search every day for a clue about
why I deserve
to be here in Aunt Michelle's kitchen,
safe
and fed.
When so many others
just like me are not.

Lucky. I am learning how to say it
over and over again in English.
I am learning how it tastes-
sweet with promise
and bitter with responsibility."
Other Words for Home is a fictional novel, published by Balzer+Bray in May 2019. The hardcover version of the book contains 352 pages, and the novel was written by Jasmine Warga, whose books have been translated into more than 25 languages and were even optioned for film.

The book follows the journey of a girl called Jude, who was born in Syria. There, she is just a normal girl. She watches American movies with her older brother and her best friend, imagining to be a famous actress herself one day. She goes to the mosque and lives with her parents. Even though Jude is shocked by the war happening in the surrounding cities, her only desire - besides becoming a popular actress - is to have a peaceful family dinner in the evenings. As the environment gets too dangerous, Jude and her pregnant mother leave their family and home behind in order to move to the United States.

In the United States, they stay with Jude's uncle and his family. But Jude's surrounding isn't the only thing changing. Her simplistic outlook gets replaced by worries and self-doubt. How is she supposed to live in that big country, where everything moves so fast, without her loved ones? How is she going to communicate with others? Will the Americans even welcome her? While Jude feels lucky to be safe, she also witnesses discrimination and faces prejudices. Still, she tries to be brave like she had promised her brother. When her school announces an upcoming play, the young girl makes up her mind to try out for it. She is determined to show the world that even a Muslim, wearing a headscarf and speaking broken English, can achieve anything.

I really enjoyed reading the book because it offers a magnificent moral to teens. The story is told from Jude's perspective, and similar to two other novels by Jasmine Warga, it is written in verses. Even though I was slightly suspicious of this narrative style at first, I believe it suits the story very well. The author uses the verses more to describe actions than to give specific details. As a consequence, the reader is given a lot of room for imagination, which enables one to put themself into Jude's shoes and still look at things through their own perspective. This makes the story relatable to anyone who reads it. While not giving many detailed descriptions, Warga conveys Jude's feelings as well as the mood of the story very precisely through the style of her writing. She uses poetical metaphors, inserts pauses at just the right moment, and provides powerful quotes. Other times, these quotes are obvious. Some other times, you have to look for the intention or deep meaning in a seemingly simple sentence.

"The one potted plant of mint has grown out
of control. It smells like strong tea
and is spilling out of its container,
taking over everything around it.

No one knows how the mint got there;
someone should do something about that.
But everyone is waiting
for someone else to do it.
We are still waiting."

The author lets the characters act in a very realistic way without adding too much drama. Still, the plain actions of the characters say a lot about how they feel and give hints about their thoughts.

Other Words for Home provides a somewhat softer view of the refugee story. Instead of living in a war-torn city, Jude's family lives in a town that is still spared from violence. Different from people in other cities, the people in Jude's town typically don't participate in protests. Instead, they obey the government; for they don't want the war to take over their heritage as well. Also, Jude and her mother have family members that welcome them while the refugees in many other books don't have a place to go to. Those differences let the focus of Other Words for Home be on a refugee starting her life over in a new country, instead of revolving around the journey from one country to the next. Having the focus be on starting at a new school is more relevant for most teens and also easier to relate to.

What sometimes bothered me about the writing style is that the author doesn't always clarify who speaks, which can slightly confuse the reader. It also prevents the story from flowing. Additionally, while I liked the fact that the book does not give much detail about the war or the characters, but rather has actions speak, it would have been helpful to add a little background information at some point. For example, Jude's religion is not explored. Even though the author writes that Jude wears a headscarf because she wants to and not because she needs to, she doesn't give any background information about that decision. In my opinion, adding an explanation of the belief or the intention behind wearing a headscarf would have been beneficial because the reader would learn to understand the religion better. Oftentimes, understanding is the first step toward tolerating something different; it would have been lovely to learn more Syrian culture, such as Jude's religion.

Other Words for Home is one of the most beautifully written, most meaningful and touching stories I've read. It lets you see the world from Jude's perspective. This extraordinary book doesn't only make us understand how a refugee, new to the country, might feel, but it also reminds us of our similarities. At the end of the day, we all have similar wishes and hopes. We long for love, respect, and a place to belong. Jude's powerful story encourages us to be faithful and to be kind to each other.

Even if we don't come from the same country, we still share a universe. Most importantly, the novel states that hoping is sometimes braver and tougher than anything else.

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Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga | Teen Ink

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ldquo;I search every day for a clue about why I deserve to be here in Aunt Michelle’s kitchen, safeand fed. When so many others just like me are not. Lucky. I am learning how to say it over and over again in English. I am l

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I am honored to reveal the cover for Other Words for Home and share an interview between Aisha Saeed and Jasmine Warga. Thank you, Aisha and Jasmine!

Illustration Credit: Anoosha Syed

Hand Lettering Credit: Jenna Stempel-Lobell

Aisha: This novel is beautifully written in verse. What was the experience like writing in verse as compared to prose? How did you decide?

Jasmine: It's funny because I've always LOVED poetry and actually my first attempts at writing were poems. (Angsty teenage poems, anyone?) But I never thought about writing a novel in verse. Then last fall, I was really struggling to find Jude's voice and I started hearing these lines that sounded more like verse than prose. I told myself I'd write out a few pages and see how I felt about it, and the verse format ended up feeling really right for Jude's story. Additionally, Arabic is such an inherently poetic language and I think writing in verse helped me with the mind-block I was having of trying to authentically write from the perspective of someone whose first language is Arabic since my first language is English.

Aisha: All the characters in OWFH are nuanced and well developed. Aside from Jude, which character was the most complex to write?

Jasmine: Oh, thank you so much! Probably the character who required the most soul-searching and deep-digging on my part was Sarah, Jude's American cousin, who is half white and half Arab. Sarah feels torn between her two worlds and isn't quite sure how to reconcile the two. Her struggles are very similar to mine as a middle-schooler.

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Cover Reveal: Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

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I am honored to reveal the cover for Other Words for Home and share an interview between Aisha Saeed and Jasmine Warga. Thank you, Aisha and Jasmine! Illustration Credit: Anoosha Syed Hand Lettering Credit: Jenna Stempel-Lobell Aisha: This novel is beautifully written in verse. What was the experience like writing in verse as compared to prose?