Independent Reading Level: 5th grade
Awards/honors: Newbery Honor Award ( )

This book is about Jude's Journey as she adjusted to life in America after she fled her home country. During the story, readers can see the experiences of having immigrated from a different country and being refugees. They will also be able to see the challenges that some immigrants face when coming to America and trying to find a new identity and also trying to preserve their old cultural identity. In this story, the students will be able to see how refugees and immigrants coming to America for the first time face different challenges especially if English is not their first language. This is great in a classroom as we have students who are emergent bilinguals or newcomers who are adjusting to the new environment. Having a book like this helps because it shows our EB/newcomer students that they do have representation here and it allows for the other students to have a look into what our EB/newcomers are going through. ( )

Beautifully written and gripping. I really enjoyed Warga's book. ( )

From NPR: "There are so many reasons to read this novel. It's a book about kindness, for one; it sings, for another, as any good verse novel should. Verse novels are coming into vogue, and Jude's voice is heightened by Warga's decision to write her story this way. It feels true. It feels like middle school and wanting things the way you do in middle school. It feels like being in the middle of so many things and not quite knowing how to navigate that uncertainty."

Representation: Asian and Black characters
Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, blood and death of people mentioned, disappearance of a brother, racism, pregnancy
Score: Eight points out of ten.
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Before I read Other Words for Home, I was at a crossroad. On one hand, I had high expectations, considering this book was initially my first one from Jasmine Warga before someone transferred it and then I had to read The Shape of Thunder (which I enjoyed.) On the other, my recent poetry reads were misses, other than a few gems. Fortunately, when I finally finished Other Words for Home, it was delightful, but heavy.

It starts with the first person I see, Jude, living a peaceful life in Syria with her family during the opening pages. Once the country got too volatile and chaotic, Jude had to move to her relatives in Ohio, America, leaving her father and brother behind. Initially, Jude hasn't acclimatised to America yet and is not used to the new labels people call her like Syrian and Middle Eastern. Jude eventually adjusts herself to her new surroundings, living in her new home and going to a new American school to make friends. Interestingly, she has two English classes: English and ESL (English as a Second Language,) where Jude finds new people to befriend. Jude's subsequent chapter in her life is mostly uneventful, save for the school play auditions and the subtle racist attacks she experiences. I liked everything about Other Words for Home: the excellent poetry and the likable and relatable characters. Toward the concluding pages, Jude reunites with her family through a screen, meets her long-lost brother and gets into the performance, finishing the narrative on a high note.

Addendum: Coincidentally, Other Words for Home combines the titles of two other novels I read: The Other Side of Tomorrow and The Horses Didn't Come Home, both of which were satisfying to read. To summarise, Other Words for Home initially looked promising and when I closed the final page, it was a gratifying reading experience. ( )