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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

With tensions mounting in Syria, Jude and her pregnant mother leave the country to stay with her maternal uncle, aunt, and cousin in Cincinnati, Ohio, leaving behind her father, college-age brother, and home. Jude has to adjust to American life, culture, and middle school, not to mention a self-centered cousin who has little initial interest in interacting with her—although they do watch TV together. She remains trusting, which makes it all the more painful when she encounters Islamophophia after she begins wearing hijab and even strangers can see that she’s Muslim. Still, there are many good things happening, from getting to know her uncle and aunt and kids in her ELL class to the pending arrival of a baby sister. Even her cousin slowly becomes a friend. But she’s worried about her father and brother—he’s involved in protests—and best friend back home, and it seems no one at her school really understands or cares about what’s happening in Syria. This verse novel is a quick and easy read in Jude’s open, observant, engaging voice. The story, which begins just prior to the start of the Syrian Civil War, is global in scope, while personal in scale, and quietly triumphant. (Ages 8–12)

CCBC Choices 2020 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2020. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2019
Warga's (My Heart and Other Black Holes, rev. 1/15) latest book is a middle-grade and middle-school novel written in free verse and narrated by a Syrian girl named Jude. The first signs of things going wrong in her world are arguments between Jude's older brother, who is dedicated to the cause of a free and democratic Syria, and their father, who wants stability even if that means allegiance to the oppressive President Assad. When military fighting comes dangerously near their hometown, Jude and her mother leave their home and family to come to the United States, where Jude's uncle lives with his American wife and their daughter. Starting school, improving her English in an ESL classroom, making new friends, and taking part in a school play are challenges in Jude's new life, as is dealing with the ugliness of Islamophobia and being brave: both for her pregnant mother and to fulfill her promise to her beloved brother, now missing in a war zone. But Jude is strong enough to face all challenges. Her voice throughout is convincing and authentic, infused with thoughtfulness, humor, determination, and hope. Her adjustment period upon arrival in the United States offers a realistic portrait of the strength it takes to move to a new country, as well as of the complicated dynamics between first- and second-generation immigrants. autumn allen

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

Starred review from April 15, 2019
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* From start to finish, Warga's middle-grade debut puts its hands around your heart and holds it, ever so gently, so that you're aware of your own fragility and resilience?just as Jude is while her life changes drastically from one day to the next. Growing up in a coastal town in Syria, Jude's days revolve around her family and best friend, watching movies, and going to school. But there's trouble on the horizon, and Jude's brother, Issa, gets involved in the resistance movement. Jude and her mother leave, moving in with Uncle Mazin and his family in Cincinnati. The novel's blank verse form works beautifully to capture Jude's tumultuous emotions as she adjusts to her new life. Friendships, complicated family relationships, Islamophobia, and a new language are just a few of the layers Warga weaves into Jude's consciousness. Jude is keenly aware of who she is?a sister, daughter, cousin, niece, friend?even as she works out the nuances of these roles. Her voice is both wise and naive, her responses credible, and her bravery admirable and accessible. After a few emotional crescendos, the story is resolved with satisfying closure and believable new possibilities. This should find its way into every middle-grade reader's hands.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

From School Library Journal

Starred review from April 1, 2019

Gr 4-8-Twelve-year-old Jude lives in a coastal tourist town in Syria where many people go to get away. While Jude wants to become a movie star, her older brother, Issa, wants more from their future than the oppression overtaking their beloved country. As the tumult crawls closer to Jude's home, Issa yearns to join the revolution in Aleppo, Baba refuses to leave his seaside store, and Mama believes the safest place for Jude, herself, and the baby she is carrying is with Jude's Uncle Mazin and Aunt Michelle in America. Leaving a possible war behind is easy, but leaving Baba, Issa, and everything she knows is hard. Adjusting to life in Cincinnati alongside her less-than-welcoming cousin, Sarah, is almost as difficult, especially with school play tryouts looming and Jude feeling that a girl like her would never get, or even merit, the spotlight. With the help of her fellow immigrant classmates and new Arabic-speaking American friend, Layla, Jude adjusts to her new home and family while never forgetting what she left behind. Told in verse and divided into five sections chronicling Jude's flight from Syria and adjustment to America, this powerful middle grade novel explores the complicated concepts of war and corruption, home, family, belonging, and how, in Jude's own words, "It is strange to feel lucky/for something that is making my heart feel so sad." VERDICT Highly recommended for all libraries, this title will easily find a home next to books like Refugee by Alan Gratz and Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.-Brittany Drehobl, Morton Grove Public Library, IL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

March 15, 2019
A story about war and displacement, resilience and adjustment.Warga portrays with extraordinary talent the transformation of a family's life before and after the war began in Syria. Living in a tourist town on the Syrian coastline, Jude experiences the inequalities in her society firsthand. With the unfolding of the Arab Spring, her older brother, Issa, wants to join protests against the Syrian regime. 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. 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. / Here, / that food is / Middle Eastern Food. / Baguettes are French food. / Spaghetti is Italian food. / 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. Only when she starts feeling comfortable with having two homes, one in Syria and one in the U.S., does a terrible incident make her confront the difficult realities of being Muslim and Arab in the U.S.Poetic, immersive, hopeful. (Historical verse fiction. 11-adult)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from February 25, 2019
Written in first-person free verse, this timely book traces the internal journey of a young Syrian refugee adjusting to a new home and culture in the U.S. When violence erupts near their seaside city, Jude and her pregnant mother flee to Cincinnati to stay with Jude's uncle and his family while her shopkeeper father and activist brother ("He is always talking about change") stay behind. In the U.S., Jude is warmly welcomed by her aunt and uncle but treated with cool indifference by her cousin, who abandons her at school, leaving Jude to navigate seventh grade in a new environment on her own. Jude struggles to fit in among students who "don't look like me," but she remembers her brother's parting words-"Be brave"-and finds comfort with her new friend Layla, whose parents are from Lebanon. Rhythmic lines distill Jude's deepest emotions-homesickness, fear when her brother enters a war zone, shock over prejudice in the U.S., and a sense of victory when she receives a speaking role in the school play. Warga (My Heart and Other Black Holes) effectively shows, as she writes in an author's note, that "children who are fleeing from a war zone... want the same things all of us do-love, understanding, safety, a chance at happiness." Ages 8â€"12. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

From AudioFile Magazine

Narrator Vaneh Assadourian's rich, lilting voice underscores the lyricism of this audiobook spoken in verse. She gives sonorous dignity to the Muslim family featured in the story. Twelve-year-old Jude is an ordinary girl who loves her family, her home in Syria, and American movies--but as war comes closer, her pregnant mother decides it is not safe to stay there. Jude and her mother go to "visit" Jude's uncle and aunt in Cincinnati. Assadourian switches effortlessly between Arabic accents for Jude and her family, American accents, and varied accents for the other immigrants in Jude's ESL class. She embodies Jude's mixed emotions as she struggles gracefully to adjust to her new home and school. Anyone who has felt like an outsider will relate to Jude's hopeful search for belonging. S.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine