Safia Elhillo is one of my absolutely favorite poets (check out her earlier collection, The January Children, and then watch her perform her work on YouTube!)

This is a YA novel in verse about a Sudanese (pre)teen named Nima who has moved with her mother to the United States after the death of her father (and rising conflict in her country.) Themes include a tumultuous friendship with her friend Haitham, the alternate girl with the alternate name (Yasmeen) whose life she imagines (the one who she might have been if her father hadn't died,) and the difficulties of finding friendship and community in a place that doesn't feel quite like home. Safia includes themes familiar to her earlier work about language, homeland, music, and belonging.

This comes from the Make Me a World imprint from Random House, alongside Pet by Akwaeke Emezi among others. It comes out today (March 2) and I had a copy from the publisher through NetGalley. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, who blurbed the book!

Poetry and books written in verse have always had a special place in my heart. Telling one’s story and developing characters in a non-traditional way is an art form that has blown me away yet again.

When I saw that this book was being compared to “The Poet X” and “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” (two of my favorites), I knew this needed to be next on my list. And it did not disappoint me in the slightest.

I am completely enamored by Elhillo’s words, elegant prose, and the ability to convey such heavy topics in such beautiful language. This prose writing almost reads as a diary would, diving deep into stories that have stuck with me beyond the book’s ending.

“Home” is a topic I have considered all my life. Is it a place? Is it a person? What does it mean exactly? Can home be a place you’ve never been? Is your life predetermined or are you in control of it?

Nima feels out of place and misunderstood, even by her mother. She doesn’t fit into her parent’s culture and doesn’t fit into the culture of her own country, either. Then Nima learns of the name her parents chose for her at birth, but decided against –Yasmeen. How can you be yourself when you were meant to be someone else? How does one find their place in the world when it feels like your world is crashing down on you, and you don’t know where “home” is?

Thank you Make me a World, Random House Kids, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Happy Pub Day to this beautiful work of art.

I loved this book. The writing style was so utterly unique I was mesmerized from the beginning. I have never seen an author use the ampersand the way Safia Elhillo did in this book. Every page I was seduced by the rhythmic melodies of her verses.

Additionally the story is simply one of beauty. The idea what our home is where we make it by loving who we are and the people around us is a message all need to hear. The main character learned throughout the trajectory of this plot line that accepting who you are is love. That who you are is enough and changing who you are is unnecessary.

In a time where immigrant voices need to be lifted and heard this book delivers. As I read this book I saw many of my students represented; their fears, their excitements, and their stories.

It is a yes for me.

This gripping novel in verse will grab your imagination and lead you into the land of what could have been. Nima struggles to understand why her mother moved to America. Nima longs for a deeper connection to her heritage and to her deceased father. Following an argument with her best friend, Haitham, Nima frequently wishes that she could disappear, that she could become Yasmeen, the girl she almost was.

As Nima and Yasmeen's journeys become more entwined, Nima realizes that she has been held captive to a nostalgia that never was ideal. She also finds herself fighting for the life that she wasn't sure she wanted. Will she successfully cling to what is rightfully hers? Can Nima overcome her idealization of the path not taken in order to fully embrace the one life she has?

HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY is a beautiful and heartbreaking Teen/Young Adult novel, written in verse—is a story about family, self-identity, love, loss, religion, tradition, Islamophobia, and the struggle to fit in when made to feel like an outsider within your community.

‘Nima doesn't feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn't.’

HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY is my first introduction to Safia Elhillo’s writing and is a book that I highly recommend for not only teens and young adults but adults as well.

The following is one of my favorite verses from the book, which I think is so beautiful and not something I ever thought about when looking at old photographs of my lineage, the traits we inherit:

‘I swear I see my exact shade of brown/ my exact eyes/ each exact coil of my hair/ inherited/ from the bodies in these photographs/ & now/ my body/ mine/ my turn with these features’

Beautiful and so well said—My Heart!

Just as a side note, the cover design is gorgeous!

Thank you, NetGalley and Make Me A World Publishing (Random House Children’s Books), for loaning me an eGalley of HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY in the request of an honest review.

Scheduled For Release – March 2, 2021 (Subject To Change)

Next up by Elhillo’s her poetry collection, THE JANUARY CHILDREN.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Safia Elhillo for the opportunity to read Home is Not a Country in exchange for an honest review.

I initially requested this book as it was described as being told in verse. I absolutely adore books told in a poetic form. It really adds to the author's craft and the artistic style of the writing. This verse wasn't quite what I expected, as it felt somewhat closer to prose, but it was written with brilliance and every word placement thought out accordingly.

This story follows Nima, a girl who struggles to fit in as her family is from the Middle East. She faces bullying as well as identity issues. Her mom always talks about where she came from, but as the title indicates, home is not the country you were born or live in, it's much more. Nima also struggles when her best friend is shot, supposedly because of racial stereotypes.

Nima has an internal identity struggle with her other half, Yasmeen. This part of the book kind of took me out of the story and I struggled to find solid ground here, but that also seems intentional, as Nima struggles to find out just who Yasmeen is to her, and to sift through this other life she could have lived. Nima struggles with identity, as most teens do, and finds that identity is made up of your own self and interests, the people around you, your cultural background, and so much more.

This was a wholesome tale about culture and finding one's place within their own world. I appreciated the verse aspect of the novel as well as the incorporation of Arabic every once in a while. I use to be able to read Arabic, but I never practiced after taking it in college, so it was lost on me, but sharing the characters of the language and showing that to young readers shares a beautiful aspect of Middle Eastern culture.

There is a lot to learn from this book, whether it's relating to similar experiences (good and bad) or learning and understanding just what "home" means. A beautiful novel that would make a fine place as a classroom book with a ton of potential for diverse discussions.

Safia Elhillo’s Home Is Not a Country is a moving YA novel in verse both about regrets and what might have been but also about embracing the path that we’ve been given.

Nima does not belong: whether it’s her predominantly white suburban high school or her Arabic classes, she retreats into herself, unable to bridge the gap between her and nearly everyone else. Only her friend Haithem is there for her, connected since the beginning when their mothers immigrated to the United States together. She loves her mother, who works so hard to keep them afloat, but Nima doesn’t feel that she truly understands her life.

Nima is haunted by who she might have been: Yasmeen. Originally, her parents had chosen the name Yasmeen for her, and Nima yearns for the life she might have had as a girl with a father, a girl who belonged, a girl who was a part both of her new community in the United States and of her Sudanese heritage. Haunted by this imagined alternative life, Nima begins to disappear from her reality: what’s imagined feels more vibrant, more real.

Elhillo tells Nima’s story through powerful verse, moving into the realm of magic as Nima has the opportunity to see who she might have been as Yasmeen.

Lyrical and surreal, Home Is Not a Country is evocative and thought provoking, empathetic and full of truth, illuminating a story I have not read before. Though I wished for more dynamic characters, a more dynamic story, I did find Nima’s story to be a moving one.

This was a fantastic read. The rhythm and style of this book took a bit to get into, but then sucked me completely in. Given the prose/poem style of this book, it was a fast read, but I kept slowing myself down to savor it. The writing took me to a place I just wanted to stay. The writing in this story was amazing.

This beautiful #ownvoices story told in verse is a look into the life of a Sudanese American Muslim girl who does not feel as though she quite "fits". She was born in the US to a newly immigrated mother. Her father was killed before she was born. Her father had wanted to name her Yasmeen, but her mother decided to give her the name Nima instead.

Nima is not a confident girl and does not have a lot of friends, she doesn't feel as though she fully fits in in her community. She also does not feel like she belongs in her mother's home country either.

She is going through a particularly rough patch in life that includes a rift with her long-time best friend and is having a bit of a crisis of identity.

She is constantly comparing herself to her imagined image of Yasmeen. Due to this Yasmeen becomes the epitomy of a happy, fulfilled life in Nima's eyes. When tragedy strikes, Nima is pulled into a magical realism/paranormal state where she must face herself as well as her families history.

Ultimately this is a book of love, friendships, family and finding oneself.

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

The last time I read a novel in verse that had me this enthralled and emotional, was with Clap When You Land.

There was so much to unpack with this brilliantly written novel. I felt Nima’s pain and struggle with finding her identity when she felt as if she didn’t belong in any specific place. It was haunting, and yet beautiful. I cried right along with her when she and Haitham were treated cruelly. I didn’t want her story to end.

I devoured this in an hour and a half, and immediately regretted not dragging it out longer.

I chose to read this because the title immediately resonated with me: Home is definitely not a country for me, and I’m sure it isn’t for many people. Home is something that I continuously search for, and find or have found in multiple places at different times in my life. It’s a tough feeling to explain to someone who was born and raised in the same place as their parents were. It’s a constant feeling of sometimes belonging in parts, and most of the time not, finding happiness in certain things, and never understanding others, and so on.

Safia Elhillo’s Home is Not a Country is a beautiful story in verse which I read in nearly one sitting, holding my heart in my hand. Nima feels divided between the life she lives and the life she could have had elsewhere, where her mother and deceased father grew up and fell in love. She doesn’t feel like she belongs and searches for answers in old photos, movies, songs, and stories, looking for signs of who she is and where she comes from. The only person who seems to understand her is her best friend Haitham, but their relationship is changing and they are drifting apart. Suddenly she notices the appearance of another presence, a girl like her who has the same name her parents were going to name her, but didn’t, Yasmeen.

Home is Not a Country is gorgeous poetry, magical realism, strong themes, a beautiful main character who I fell in love with, and is all in all a must read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this beautiful book. Learning about what others go through bring do much pain yet it's wonderful. This gives me a clearer view of how others struggle and how I can help make others feel more comfortable. The way the author has written this book is breathtaking. I got a clear picture of what it was like for the MC.

Everyone should read this because it is important to know that just because you are from a certain background doesn't make you a terrorist. It isn't a joke when you talk down on others. Everyone are humans with real feelings and emotions.

I was captivated by this book because it’s written in verse, and I love books written in verse. The poetry writing in this book is phenomenal. However, I found it hard to follow along with the story as it shifts from different perspectives. Overall, I gave this book three stars.

Home is Not a Country is a beautifully written novel in verse. It took me a little while to sort out the different characters in the story, but once I did I was completely drawn in. At first, I did not understand the connection between Yasmeen and Nima, but once I was into the story, it was better explained. I would highly recommend this book to all junior high and high school students and teachers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Nima and her mother have fled their homeland in search of the American dream. Unfortunately Nima does not feel like she belongs in America at all. She is often excluded and bullied at school, and her peers call her a terrorist. She wishes that her late father could emerge and make it all better. When given the chance at a new, different life, Nima finds that the grass is not always greener on the other side, and maybe her mother is all she ever needed after all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books for a review copy of this book. I love reading novels in verse, and when I noticed this book blurbed by Elizabeth Acevedo, and read the intriguing premise, I wanted to give it a try. It follows Nima, who doesn’t feel like she is understood by anyone except her best friend, Haitham. She dreams of being another person who fits in.

This started a bit slow for me, largely due to the format choices made. For example, there is very little punctuation present. I know this is not that uncommon for a novel in verse, but there were also no capital letters used. The word “i” being spelled with a lowercase letter was difficult for me to take (and it was used A LOT). However, once I got used to these style choices, the pace suddenly quickened to a point where I didn’t want to put it down. The result felt like a cross between It’s a Wonderful Life and Sliding Doors. I would absolutely recommend this book!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my review.

I thought this story was beautiful. It was pitched for fans of The Poet X and I can see why they pitched it that way. This had a similar tone and was also written in verse.

It tells the story of Nima as she struggles with her identity, her sense of belonging, and her destiny. The themes of family, life, loss, friendship, and longing are prevalent throughout this story that you can’t help but get lost in. The only thing that threw me off a little was the aspects of magical realism. I wasn’t aware they would be in there and was a little confused when things started to unfold that are meant to be looked at metaphorically while they are literally happening on the page. If you go in knowing this story has those aspects of magic in them, you won’t be disappointed. Definitely read this if it sounds at all interesting to you!

Wow... just...wow. I'm so incredibly grateful to have been able to read this in advance.


What an incredible book about love, family, finding oneself, and most importantly a story of coming to America in search of the dream. This beautiful boom is so unique in that it is written in prose.


The story follows Nima who struggles with her parent's origins and homeland (from the middle east) while simultaneously being ostracized in her American home town because she is not American enough. She is often bullied and called a terrorist merely because of her skin color and she comes to find out her mother meant to give her another name at birth: Yasmin.


The story then heads into a beautifully executed magical realist realm where Yasmin,  her doppelganger,  appears before her and they both journey together into their parent's past ans the decisions that led to Nima becoming Nima.


Normally people may be turned off by a novel in prose, but I guarantee if you give it a chance you will fall in love with it as much as I did. Sofia Elhillo writes such beautifully poetic lines that pulled at my sentiments in all the right places.  I absolutely loved this work and can't wait for it to be released March 2nd (this coming Tuesday!)

In Home is Not A Country, Safia Elhillo changes the genre of novel in verse, writing with such detailed description and carefully chosen enjambment that the reader is really floating between poetry and prose. The narrator, Nima, struggles with unanswered questions about her father, the bullying at school as an Arab student, and navigating her self worth. After fights at home, Nima runs away, eventually confronting a spirit-sister that shows her the context of her family. Nima has to figure out and fight for her place in the physical realm, back with the people she says she loves by rediscovering that love for them and herself.

Elhillo’s characterization is incredible. The language choices stun. She plays with voice and perspective in a way that shows her talent as a writer—the ease with which she is able to move us through time, place and voice. This book is also essential in its beautiful and layered representation of coming of age as Arab American—a reflective piece of this text I’m excited to here more about from Arab American Bookstagrammers.

An honor to read this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I am not entirely sure how to rate and review this book. The writing was beautiful and I thought the author really shed a lot of light on the racism and bullying Nima faced as a young Arabic woman in the United States. When the book took a magical realism turn, is where I got lost a bit. It was still enjoyable, just not what I was anticipating.