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readingrediscovered 's review for:
Other Words for Home
by Jasmine Warga
With all that is currently happening in the world following the death of George Floyd, and the ensuing riots, I decided that I would try to take some extra time to listen to voices of BIPOC authors, to hear their stories, and to learn from them in the best way I can in my small, sheltered, very white-centred town.
So I looked through all my books, and pulled off every book I could find with BIPOC authors or main characters and decided to tackle this one first. It didn't seem too daunting or challenging, as it is presented in verse and from a 12 year old's perspective, but as I read, I did not expect it to challenge me and make me think as much as it did.
The story is told from the first person perspective of Jude, a Syrian girl who moves to America with her mother as the situation in her hometown becomes more and more uncertain, and the neighboring city of Aleppo becomes unsafe to live in. I found myself pausing a number of times to re-read a passage or quote and found myself able to better see the drastic changes of moving from one place to another in a new way.
Because of my heritage and the place I live, which I am fortunate does not see the same type of unrest as many POC communities, I have been quite sheltered from these perspectives, and only see what the media or small posts on social media share with me - which I know can be terribly biased towards ignoring the root of the problem and getting back to a sense of peace and justice without actually doing the work to get to real peace and justice.
I think this book should be read by more people, and as a teacher, I can share this with my students when the grade-appropriate opportunity presents (I'm thinking Grade 6+...not the Grade 2 class I will have...) and use it to spark discussions of how we can celebrate our differences without ignoring them and trying to hide how 'the others' are different from 'us'.
So I looked through all my books, and pulled off every book I could find with BIPOC authors or main characters and decided to tackle this one first. It didn't seem too daunting or challenging, as it is presented in verse and from a 12 year old's perspective, but as I read, I did not expect it to challenge me and make me think as much as it did.
The story is told from the first person perspective of Jude, a Syrian girl who moves to America with her mother as the situation in her hometown becomes more and more uncertain, and the neighboring city of Aleppo becomes unsafe to live in. I found myself pausing a number of times to re-read a passage or quote and found myself able to better see the drastic changes of moving from one place to another in a new way.
Because of my heritage and the place I live, which I am fortunate does not see the same type of unrest as many POC communities, I have been quite sheltered from these perspectives, and only see what the media or small posts on social media share with me - which I know can be terribly biased towards ignoring the root of the problem and getting back to a sense of peace and justice without actually doing the work to get to real peace and justice.
I think this book should be read by more people, and as a teacher, I can share this with my students when the grade-appropriate opportunity presents (I'm thinking Grade 6+...not the Grade 2 class I will have...) and use it to spark discussions of how we can celebrate our differences without ignoring them and trying to hide how 'the others' are different from 'us'.