THE HOME WE MAKE

A child escapes a war-torn country.

The young protagonist’s father first pockets his house key, then decides to leave it by the door, signaling that the family is unlikely to ever return. The family ends up at the sea, where they wait under a dock while the child uses a stick to trace an image of home into the sand. The next day, the picture of the house has washed away, but there are boats willing to take the family to their next destination—a refugee camp. Making new friends renders the family’s instability and anxiety slightly easier to endure. Eventually, the family starts a new, more hopeful life in America, but they never stop missing home. Though the main characters are brown-skinned, their country of origin isn’t identified; in an author’s note, Khwaja discusses how her family, forced to leave Kashmir because of famine and flooding, moved to Pakistan and then, years later, emigrated to the United States. Written in verse, her powerful book captures both the terror of displacement and brief but meaningful moments of tenderness. Never shying away from the harsher details of migration, neither does she reduce the story to its trauma, creating a nuanced tale that will both inform those lucky enough to enjoy geographic stability and feel familiar to those who aren’t. Popping with vivid colors, Faidhi’s illustrations have a sweetness that tempers the story’s bleaker moments.

A moving and enlightening depiction of the refugee experience.