I hope that by reading this bighearted, moving novel, readers will have a greater sense of empathy toward anyone who seems different. What is it like to be that girl? To leave everything and everyone you know behind to start a whole new life with relatives in the United States? To have to learn a new language and make all new friends? That is what Jude faces in this story. But Jude has the added challenge of coming from a country that is constantly in the news and is portrayed as a violent, dangerous place. By writing Jude in Other Words for Home, she wanted readers to see a girl who is just like them, struggling with the same issues that every middle schooler faces. As an adult, she learned to feel proud of it again. When she was growing up, Jasmine saw so little positive representation of Arab American characters in books and other media that she became ashamed of her own culture. These experiences - and others - happened to Jasmine Warga. Your classmates dress up as terrorists for Halloween and introduce themselves to the class as Mohammad, which is your father's name. The boy sitting across from you in science class casually says that Americans should just bomb the entire Middle East because everyone who lives there is worthless.Ī friend posts a "poem" on social media that says: God made roses, God made violets, God made Arabs, God makes mistakes. Imagine that you are an Arab American girl who was born in the United States, and this happens:
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