Pizza is both American and Italian, / depending on which restaurant you go to.” Jude, who has always loved American movies, shares her observations-often with humor-as she soaks everything in and learns this new culture. Here, / that food is / Middle Eastern Food. Her free-verse narration cuts straight to the bone: “Back home, / food was / rice / lamb / fish / hummus / pita bread / olives / feta cheese / za’atar with olive oil. The parents are in favor of staying out of it, but with news of a new baby and nearby towns turning into battlegrounds, Jude and her mother travel to join her uncle, a medical doctor, and his family in the American Midwest. With the unfolding of the Arab Spring, her older brother, Issa, wants to join protests against the Syrian regime.

Living in a tourist town on the Syrian coastline, Jude experiences the inequalities in her society firsthand. Warga portrays with extraordinary talent the transformation of a family’s life before and after the war began in Syria. Jude's mother is pregnant, and she and Jude have decided to leave Syria for the United States.A story about war and displacement, resilience and adjustment. Issa's apartment is raided by the Syrian police. Issa moves out of his family's house at the relatively young age of 16. Issa's views cause a rift between him and Jude's father. Issa, Jude's older brother, is a revolutionary, who opposes the Syrian government. While they were once very close, they have started to drift away, as Fatima begins to mature and wear the hijab. Fatima is Jude's neighbor and best friend. Jude is forbidden by her father to talk to the tourists. The city's primary income depends on tourism, and tourists from around the world come. The story introduces Jude, a Syrian girl who aspires to be a movie star, and the sea-bordering city she lives in. The story is about a family of Syrian refugees with Jude, a 12-year-old girl, as protagonist. Other Words for Home is a 2019 free verse children's book by Jasmine Warga.

Other words for home by jasmine warga