Home is Not a Country is the most creative, innovative book that I've read in a long time. It took awhile for me to get used to a novel being written like poetry, as well as the way the author uses titles and subtitles in the book. However, after that, I got a chance to really enjoy the author's unique style of writing and plot development. The complicated story line mixed with the author's talented use of images to describe the inner and outer working of the characters and scenery came together masterfully in the end!

I loved this story. I don't often read anything like this kind of story written in verse, this will be rectified. Looking forward to reading more by this author and others I come across.

Novels written in verse might be one of my new favorite things. This one is beautiful.

Nima doesn't feel like she belongs in her "new" country, where she was born, but she also doesn't feel like her "home" country, where her mother came from, is home either. She's basically adrift and trying to find her identity.

I definitely recommend this.

Thank You Netgalley and Random House Children's for my gifted copy. I completely agree with the description that Elizabeth Acevedo fans will enjoy this poetry book. I really enjoyed it and the uniqueness.

I'd like to start with a disclaimer. I don't read much poetry, so if you're wondering how the structure or verse is, I am definitely not the go to person. I thought it was well-written and wonderful!

What I will say is this story is a must read. Elhillo does a great job including themes of racism, homeland, family, and identity. It is a book that is raw and beautiful. It captures the feeling of loneliness, fitting in, and overall, just finding your place in the world.

A powerful, must read novel! I'd definitely recommend the audiobook as well as it is narrated by the author!

Many thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Stunning, beautifully written novel in verse that will appeal to fans of Elizabeth Acevedo. A moving story of family and finding yourself. A brilliant YA that will appeal to readers of all ages.

I don’t think I have ever read a book quite like this one. Without giving any of the plot away the story takes a turn that I wasn’t expecting, and goes in a direction that was enlightening to the true nature of the story.

There were key elements that I really enjoyed that focused on relationships, primarily the relationship between a mother and daughter. I appreciated the attention to the concept of the role of motherhood and it shaping an individual, apart from who she was before that role was born.

The writing was beautiful. The focus on immigration and Islamophobia related to the plot and didn’t feel forced. The story blended together well. And I appreciated the roots in culture related to mythology.

I am always fascinated about the written word and poetry. It is wonderful how the author is able to present such emotions in these poems! Loved it!

Broken into three parts New Country -Old Country - Home is Not a Country this is a story that deserves to be savored. A story of how small choices make a big difference. About belonging and wanting to belong. There is one line from the story that continues to haunt me:

“i’m sorry for being so american in here and not enough of one out there"

Definitely a book I will read a second time.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This YA novel in verse follows 14 year old Nima, a Muslim girl raised by a single immigrant mother. She feels misunderstood by her mother, but also by the world around her that constantly tells her she is an outsider. ⁣
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While Nima struggles to understand her identity, she finds herself thinking of the girl she could have been, if just one thing had been different: if her father was alive, or if her parents had named her Yasmeen as they'd originally planned. As she grapples with the girl Yasmeen might have been, Nima will find herself fighting for her own life with a strength she didn't know she had.⁣
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Home Is Not a Country is an utterly beautiful story of identity, family, and finding yourself. I love that this novel explores how our lives are shaped by our names, the world around us, the actions of our ancestors. It's about questioning who you could have been, but also, discovering who you really are.⁣
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We need more YA for younger teens, so I loved that Nima is 14! This novel in verse is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jasmin Kaur.⁣ I'm definitely looking forward to adding Home is Not a Country to my library's collection, and reading more from Safia!
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CW: Islamophobia, hate crime, death of a parent (off-page).

This is a lovely book written in verse with magical realism blended in. It was also blurbed by Elizabeth Acevedo, so I was definitely on board. The writing was so beautifully done and an incredible story was woven about racism, identity, and learning to love yourself. I definitely recommend this book, as well as, the audio version that is narrated by the author!

Really beautiful and surprising. I wasn't expecting the magical realism, but it truly adds an important element to the book.

Lauded poet Safia Elhillo has written a short novel in verse in which she contemplates identity, family, the disorienting sense of translocation that occurs when one is too foreign for suburban American and too American for one's country of origin. Nima is a teenager whose mother left an unnamed Arabic country with her after the death of Nima's father. But violence surrounds them in America after a boy in their community, Haitham is beaten by racist thugs. Nima contemplates what all this means, and envisions the girl she might have been, Yasmeen, which was the name discarded by her parents after she was born. Would Yasmeen's father still live? Would Yasmeen speak fluent Arabic and be at home with her father's family and all her cousins back home? In a dialogue with this imaginary other self (or is she a djinn?) Nima interrogates her world that is and that might have been, and eventually comes to a place of peace in which she understands her mother, her family, and her place in her world.

This is a moving book that would be an excellent selection for summer reading lists.

The audiobook is beautifully read by the author, who helps the reader feel the beautiful cadence of her verse.

I received a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a lyrical story about a young girl and her longing for a better version of herself, of what home and family are, and about understanding the past and history to better empathize with the present. Nima is young, complicated, thoughtful, and ultimately, herself.

When describing this book to a family member, I told them that it wasn't bad but was really weird. That sums up most of my experience with this book except for that fact that the concept just didn't feel super fresh to me. I can't quite place where I've seen it before but the concept definitely didn't feel fresh. I do have to say though that I really appreciate the book focusing on a Palestinian MC and exploring her life and culture. It wasn't super explicitly stated that the MC was Palestinian but mentions of the flag colors and the river suggest a Palestinian MC.

I honestly don't know what else to say about this book because when I finished it, those were the only things that really came to mind. The story didn't really stand out to me as one I really enjoyed or hated, it just felt like something I had read and that was it

Safia Elihillo’s ‘Home is Not a Country’ is a novel in verse with beautiful poems about Nima, her mama, her baba she never seen and the better and beautiful version of herself.

She opens with talking about the photographs in a lifetime before her and when her parents not yet parents. She knows about her father through the photographs everywhere in their house including the one in her mama’s wallet.

Her verse captivates in narrating her life in suburban America, the land still foreign to her mama, her only friend Haitham, her school, Arabic classes.
Her name is supposed to ‘Yasmeen’ not ‘Nima’ which means grace. And she thinks she is not a graceful girl.

She echoes her mama’s grief over loss of her father and a lost world where she was happiest.

‘I miss him too my father though we never met
I miss the country that i’ve never seen the cousins
& aunts & grandparents I miss the help
They could have offered’

When she is bullied and called a terrorist, she questions mama ‘why did you bring us here? they hate us’ and spilling the desire to have her baba or someone to protect her.

Her poetry elegantly captures how the questions about where we come from can take over our life. It's a portrait of perspective, which holds up a mirror to show that ultimately, we are telling our own stories, and we can choose to see them differently

What a beautiful story. Culture is expertly woven with the teenage experience. This novel in verse will be cannon along with Elizabeth Acevedo, Kwame Alexander, and Jacqueline Woodson. Loved this story!!

Nima is struggling with feeling alone in her family and her community. As a second-generation American, Nima has different concerns than those of her mother, but she often suffers from similar ostracism.

This beautifully written novel in verse explores identity and family with an elaborate element of magical realism.

These poems give you a look into another culture being raised as a first-generation American. I felt like each poem in this book was a very good detailed mini-story that pulled me in and made me want to read more. I feel this book of poetry has a different flow than most. It will have a title and go right into a poem and at times come to what I feel is an abrupt end that left me feeling like it was unfinished.

This book was beautiful. It made me want to snuggle up and drink mint tea.

The main character, Nima lives with her mom and down the hall from family friends. Nima lost her father at a young age, and is always comparing herself with the name her parents were thinking of naming her "Yasmeen." Then Nima starts to see Yasmeen and begins to think she herself isn't real. When Nima's childhood friend is beat up by men for being Muslim, Nima finds herself spiraling. She sees Yasmeen and begins to follow her and is then pulled into the past to the night her parents get married. She stays in the past as she and Yasmeen struggle with who is the real daughter. Nima learns quite a few lessons about her past and that not everything is how it seems.

This was an interesting premise for a novel in verse. I liked that the story took you to another time and place and the descriptions were so rich. They never actually say what country they travel to, but from the descriptions it has to be northern Africa. This was a really beautiful, coming-of-age story and I recommend it to anyone that enjoys novels in verse.