Jude is such an insightful narrator her confidence, her insecurities and her confusion all come through in the pages. Much to her cousins’ dismay, she even auditions for the school musical.
“Be brave.” Slowly, she grows to enjoy her new classes and even makes new friends in her ESL classes where they all bond over their experiences of coming to the states. She reminds herself of her brother’s goodbye message. Her cousin Sarah makes no effort to help, her aunt tries her best, and her new peers see her as something different. Her life in the states is new but straining. Along with her pregnant mother, she must leave her family, father and brother, behind, and comes face-to-face with the life she had thought she knew from the movies. Growing up, Jude was obsessed with movies and becoming a star, so she is obviously surprised when she must move away from her coastal home when it descends into a civil war. Jude is the sweetest protagonist and her story was so inspiring and relatable. Told in verse, Other Words for Home follows her journey to understanding her new label of “Middle Eastern” while also finding herself. Being the only student who looks like her, she begins to discover that she isn’t seen as a normal girl like her peers. Jude is only twelve-years-old when she leaves Syria to live to live with her uncle’s family in the US. Sometimes, though, I think labels stop them from thinking.”
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