Home Is Not a Country

Product Description 
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD “Nothing short of magic.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X From the acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the ephemeral girl she might have been. Woven through with moments of lyrical beauty, this is a tender meditation on family, belonging, and home. \nmy mother meant to name me for her favorite flower\nits sweetness garlands made for pretty girls\ni imagine her yasmeen bright & alive\n& i ache to have been born her instead\nNima wishes she were someone else. She doesn’t feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn’t feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn't different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is the only person with whom she can truly be herself. Until she can't, and suddenly her only refuge is gone.\nAs the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen—the name her parents meant to give her at birth—Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more real than Nima knows. And the life Nima wishes were someone else's. . . is one she will need to fight for with a fierceness she never knew she possessed.\nFrom School Library Journal 
Gr 6 Up-Sudanese American poet Elhillo invites readers into her dreamlike story of 15-year-old Nima, who struggles with loneliness and the possibilities of the road not taken. Growing up in the United States, Nima wonders what life would be like if she spoke Arabic fluently, if her father hadn't died, if her mother had not left a country where everyone had dark eyes, sepia-toned skin, and textured hair like her, or if she had been given a name she felt she could live up to. In this novel in verse, Elhillo shows readers the beauty of what could have been, and the pain of being labeled a terrorist. When Nima's best friend, Haitham, is attacked, a series of dangerous events unfold, yet readers are given no real resolution. Told in three parts, the flow is a bit disjointed, but overall this is a quick and engaging story. Fans of Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land or Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate & Other Filters will enjoy this look at identity and acceptance. VERDICT A unique verse novel that looks at how our past choices influence identity and sense of belonging.-Monisha Blair, Rutgers Univ., NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 
 Review 
“ 
Movingly unravels themes of belonging, Islamophobia, and the interlocking oppressions thrust upon immigrant women.” 
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review\n“ 
[A] surreal crash-course in perspective, agency, and self-love.” 
—Booklist, starred review\n“Artfully profound and 
achingly beautiful, Elhillo’s verse 
aptly explores diasporic yearning for one’s home and a universal fascination with possibilities.” 
—Publishers Weekly, starred review\n"Elhillo's 
tender and descriptive writing may leave readers feeling the need to live life to the fullest…[a] 
passionate, piercing YA collection of poems." 
—Shelf Awareness, starred review \n“A 
love letter to anyone who has ever been an outsider, or searched to understand their history, no matter where they come from.” 
—NPR\n" 
Richly imagined [...] An 
immersive experience of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, and identity." 
—The Horn Book\nAbout the Author 
Safia Elhillo is the author of the poetry collection 
The January Children, which received the the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and a 2018 Arab American Book Award.\nSudanese by way of Washington, DC, she holds an MFA from The New School, a Cave Canem Fellowship, and a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Fo

Teen & Young Adult

Elhillo, Safia

Literature & Fiction

Make Me a World

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD &nbsp; "Nothing short of magic." --Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X &nbsp; From the&nbsp; acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa's "30 Under 30" list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the ephemeral girl she might have been. Woven through with moments of lyrical beauty, this is a tender meditation on family, belonging, and home. &nbsp; my mother meant to name me&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for her favorite flower its sweetness&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; garlands made&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for pretty girls i imagine her&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; yasmeen &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; bright & alive & i ache to have been born her&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; instead Nima wishes she were someone else. She doesn't feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn't feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn't&nbsp;different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is the only person with whom she can truly be herself. Until she can't, and suddenly her only refuge is gone. &nbsp; As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen--the name her parents meant to give her at birth--Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more&nbsp;real&nbsp;than Nima knows.&nbsp; And the life Nima wishes were someone else's. . .&nbsp;is one&nbsp;she will need to fight for with a fierceness she never knew she possessed. &nbsp;

Children's Books

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Intimate poems that explore feminine shame and violence and imagine what liberation from these threats might look like, from the award-winning author of The January Children\n“Incredibly moving . . . Every single poem is stellar.”—Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women and Hunger\nIn Girls That Never Die, award-winning poet Safia Elhillo reinvents the epic to explore Muslim girlhood and shame, the dangers of being a woman, and the myriad violences enacted and imagined against women’s bodies. Drawing from her own life and family histories, as well as cultural myths and news stories about honor killings and genital mutilation, she interlaces the everyday traumas of growing up a girl under patriarchy with magical realist imaginings of rebellion, autonomy, and power.\nElhillo writes a new world: women escape their stonings by birds that carry the rocks away; slain girls grow into two, like the hydra of lore, sprouting too numerous to ever be eradicated; circles of women are deemed holy, protected. Ultimately, Girls That Never Die is about wrestling ourselves from the threats of violence that constrain our lives, and instead looking to freedom and questioning:\n[what if i will not die]\n[what will govern me then]

Girls That Never Die: Poems

Genre Fiction

One World

Bright Red Fruit

An unflinching,&nbsp;honest novel in verse about a teenager's journey into the slam poetry scene and&nbsp;the&nbsp;dangerous new relationship that could threaten all her dreams. From the award-winning poet and author of HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY. Bad girl. No matter how hard Samira tries, she can't shake her reputation. She's never gotten the benefit of the doubt--not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk. Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring&nbsp;DC, and growing as a poet--until a scandalous rumor has her grounded&nbsp;and unable to leave her house.&nbsp;When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted.&nbsp;But soon she's keeping a bigger secret than ever before--one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community. In this gripping coming-of-age novel from the critically acclaimed author&nbsp;Safia&nbsp;Elhillo, a young woman&nbsp;searches to&nbsp;find the balance between honoring her family, her artistry, and her authentic self.

In her dedication Safia Elhillo writes, “The January Children are the generation born in Sudan under British occupation, where children were assigned birth years by height, all given the birth date January 1.” What follows is a deeply personal collection of poems that describe the experience of navigating the postcolonial world as a stranger in one’s own land. The January Children depicts displacement and longing while also questioning accepted truths about geography, history, nationhood, and home. The poems mythologize family histories until they break open, using them to explore aspects of Sudan’s history of colonial occupation, dictatorship, and diaspora. Several of the poems speak to the late Egyptian singer Abdelhalim Hafez, who addressed many of his songs to the asmarani—an Arabic term of endearment for a brown-skinned or dark-skinned person. Elhillo explores Arabness and Africanness and the tensions generated by a hyphenated identity in those two worlds. No longer content to accept manmade borders, Elhillo navigates a new and reimagined world. Maintaining a sense of wonder in multiple landscapes and mindscapes of perpetually shifting values, she leads the reader through a postcolonial narrative that is equally terrifying and tender, melancholy and defiant.

The January Children (African Poetry Book)

History & Criticism

University Of Nebraska Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elhillo, Safia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Elhillo, Safia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elhillo, Safia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Home Is Not a Country

Home Is Not a Country

Home Is Not a Country

Girls That Never Die: Poems

Bright Red Fruit

Bright Red Fruit

The January Children (African Poetry Book)