OTHER WORDS FOR HOME

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, 2019 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2019]