My New Home After Iraq

My New Home After Iraq is part of the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series from Crabtree Publishing. After the Journeycontinues the fictional stories begun in Crabtree’s “Leaving My Homeland” series. These are the stories of individual young people who have been forced by circumstance to become refugees.

My New Home After Iraq tells the story of Zainab, a fictional child from Iraq, and her family as they settle in their new home in Dearborn, Michigan.

Statistics, maps, background information about the homeland country, Iraq, set the family’s story in context.

Scattered through the book are different articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These articles are a clear reminder that all refugees, including children, have rights. A resource listed at the end of the book leads the reader to a United Nations website that explains these rights in child-friendly language.

Like other books in the series, My New Home After Iraq includes a table of contents, a simple glossary, an index, and a page of resources for additional information. Each book ends with a list of discussion prompts to help the reader recall and consolidate the information in the book.

In the story, Zainab and her family have fled from Iraq, arriving first in Jordan before they are eventually told they could go to live in the United States. A resettlement worker assists them to find a home, schools, and doctors. “They help them apply to work in the United States. When a refugee has a job, they pay taxes to the government. Refugees also repay the government the cost of their airfare to the United States.”

Part of the story is told in the first person through Zainab’s texts, messages and phone calls to friends and relatives back in Iraq. It is clear how much her life has changed and how much effort her family is putting into making a life for themselves in their new home. It is also clear how much the lives of her family and relatives back in Iraq continue to be impacted by the ongoing conflict, even though the Iraqi War officially ended in 2011.

The books in this series support global citizenship. Each book ends with a section titled, “Do Not Forget Our Stories!” This section explains that refugees are an asset to their new countries.

Research shows that after eight years in a new country, refugees will have paid more in taxes than they received in assistance. This means they help the country be strong and powerful.

It is important that people try to help refugees in any way they can. We must also remember their stories.

As in the books in the “Leaving My Homeland” series, the details of the simply told narratives are easy to read but almost impossible to comprehend by people who have never experienced them. Whether your school or community has a high number of refugee children or not, the books in the “Leaving My Homeland: After the Journey” series belong in every library.