Module 5: Lee Bennett Hopkins Award Poetry

 

Other Words for Home

Bibliography

Warga, Jasmine. (2019). Other words for home. Balzar + Bray. ISBN: 9780062747808

 

Summary

Other Words for Home is a coming-of-age novel in verse about a girl who moves to America with her mom due to the political unrest and threat of revolution in her home country of Syria.  She begins living with her uncle and must leave her brother and father in Syria.  As she grows and matures during her time in America, she experiences vast differences in people’s treatment of her before and after she begins wearing a headscarf.  She also sees her uncle has lost a lot of his home culture and traditions while living in America and her cousin, who grew up in America, hasn’t experienced these connections to home.  This leads to a realization that they are very different.  There is not a table of contents, but the content is broken down into six parts (changing, arriving, staying, hoping, growing, living) and each part is broken down into numbered chapters.  The author includes a glossary of Arabic words in the backmatter of the book, as well as an authors note about how she came upon the idea for the book and some web addresses for readers to learn more about the conflict in Syria.

 

Analysis

This free verse novel is a great fit for upper elementary and middle school students.  The theme of staying true to yourself even when others treat you differently or make you feel bad about it will resonate with this age group.  The structure of the poems change throughout the book because the poet focuses more on the meaning and the stimulation of an emotional connection to the character than keeping the number of lines and stanzas consistent.  The poet includes italics for words spoken by characters instead of quotation marks to keep the novel looking like poetic verse instead of a traditional novel.

There is no rhyming within the poems because it is written more like a novel telling a story than focusing on creating a rhythm for the reader.  The poet uses a lot of figurative language and sense imagery to appeal to the entire reader and their emotions.  This focus on figurative language pulls the reader into the story and allows them to feel like they are there and experiencing things along with the characters.  This focus on emotions will appeal to the upper elementary and middle school readers due to their own experiences with similar emotions or experiences.  It will also lead them to see growth in the characters, their relationships, and their experiences throughout the book.

The vocabulary used throughout the novel is a combination of words that would be used by a person of Jude’s age but also pushes the reader by using descriptive language that not all students will know but can typically figure out through context clues.  The author also uses Arabic words at specific places throughout the novel which will cause even strong readers to pause and use the glossary to decipher these culturally important words.  This is a great way to keep the reader focused on the main character’s culture and struggles.

 

Poem Excerpt

Mrs. Ravenswood

    is one of the only Americans

    who doesn’t act

    suspicious of my headscarf.

 

    When I walk into

    her classroom

    the first day

    that my head is covered,

    she smiles at me,

    looking me right in the

    eyes,

    seeing me.

 

    Hello, Jude,

    she says.

    Good morning.

    You look nice

    today.

    There is an Arabic proverb that says:

    She makes you feel

    like a loaf of freshly baked bread.

    It is said about

    the nicest

    kindest

    people.

    The type of people

    who help you

    rise.

 

Activity

This book has a lot of great figurative and descriptive language that would lead itself well to a poetry book scavenger hunt for these different types of language.  For example, the Arabic proverb mentioned in the poem excerpt above which states, “She makes you feel like a loaf of freshly baked bread.” The poem excerpt then goes on to explain what this means.  I also really liked the phrase “Today the air is so soupy that it feels like I am living inside someone else’s mouth.”  What a great way to make the reader feel that thick humid day. 

I would read a couple excerpts from the book like I mentioned above for this activity and then allow students to read through the text to find other examples of figurative language.  I would make sure to include a worksheet with the different types of language I want them to find.  Students will then have a chance to read and share their favorite poem excerpt that includes figurative language, so students can hear the language read aloud.