Ida in the Middle

October 10, 2022
After unknowingly eating a magic olive, Palestinian American eighth grader Ida is whisked away to an alternate reality, in which her family never left Palestine, in this expansive novel from Murad (I Found Myself in Palestine, for adults). Ida has just transferred into a new school to escape the xenophobic bullying at her previous one, but she worries that she’ll never truly circumvent torment when she finds “T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T” graffitied on her desk. When Ida eats from a jar of olives gifted to her mother by Ida’s aunt, and she’s magically transported to her family’s ancestral village of Busala, she finds that by consuming the olives, she can move between the parallel worlds. The two realities bear striking similarities and differences: while her mother is still as doting as ever in Palestine, Ida is shocked that her sisters’ passion for art and dance remains unexplored, unlike back home in Massachusetts. As these two separate lives unfurl, Ida feels she must choose between them. Murad persuasively crafts an enlightening tale via introspective, authentic-feeling prose, and a protagonist whose bravery in the face of her fears instills hope and warmth. Ages 12–16.