She’s an excellent reader, and this book is easy to read in terms of level, but the prose is so spare that it requires a lot of higher level thinking.
I read this book with my 8 year and it is so beautiful (I often read ahead because I enjoyed the style so much). But any reader who's ever struggled to fit in after moving to a new town or felt alone on the first day at a new school will easily identify with Jude. The novel addresses serious and timely topics (the war in Syria, prejudice, what it means to be a refugee), that some parents may find too mature for younger readers. There are a couple of brief mentions of two girls getting their first periods. A handful of violent episodes (a bombing and a police raid) are described in only a few words and never graphically. Only one other student at her new school looks like her and and she's trying to understand why she's not seen as simply a girl, but instead now has a label: Middle Eastern Muslim.
It's a novel in free verse written in the voice of Jude, a 12-year-old Syrian refugee who comes to live with her uncle's family in Ohio. Parents need to know that Jasmine Warga's Other Words for Home won a 2020 Newbery Honor. Jude watches old American movies ( Runaway Bride, Legally Blond, Pretty Woman) and she and her brother sing along with Whitney Houston.
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