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Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Home Is Not a Country, written by Safia Elhillo. Make Me a World, Penguin Random House. 2021. 23.99 ages 12 and up

 



"I know something happened on the news again
because my mother has stopped wearing her scarf
to work    & instead tucks each strand of her hair
into a knit hat   the nape of her neck new
& tender in the light   she who once said 
I will never be ashamed of where I come from 
I will never let you be ashamed of who we are
seems to have changed her mind    & I wonder
if this means I should feel ashamed too
"

Nima has never felt comfortable being who she is. Her father died before her birth. Her mother chose to leave family and friends for a new life. Nima doesn't feel at home in this new life in America., and doesn't feel any real connection to her culture. She has one friend ... Haitham. Following his hate-crime beating and while he is recuperating, she has no one. Her days are spent with no social contact and little communication with her mother. The reality of this life where she is bullied for not speaking English without an accent, the poverty that is the life of a single mother raising a child alone, the hate for Muslims at the time, and her inability to speak with Haitham while he is in a coma lead her to a belief about what life could be, if only she knew about her home country and heritage. 

Her dreams offer a different way of life; the kind of life she has never known. In that other reality, her father is still alive, her extended family is large and welcoming, and her mother has time away from work to spend with her. Her dream world, and Yasmeen, lead her to take risks she might never take in the real world. Yameen could be her other self, the one who knows what her life might have been. 

The narrative voice in this novel in verse is authentic, and often heartbreaking. The fantasy that allows a life of belonging and love in the land of her birth soon collapses, and points Nima toward a new appreciation for what she does have and who she is. Gaining that perspective makes for a hopeful conclusion to her story.  

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