Nora Lester Murad

Ida in the Middle Nora Lester Murad

Every time violence erupts in the Middle East, Ida knows what's coming next at her school. Some of her classmates treat her as if it's all her fault--just for being Palestinian. In eighth grade, Ida is forced to move to a different school, but people still treat her like she's a criminal. Ida wishes she could disappear.

One day, freaking out about a final class project that she's been dreading, Ida looks for food. She discovers a jar of olives that came from a beloved aunt in her family's village near Jerusalem. She eats one and finds herself there--as if her parents had never left Palestine! Things are different in her alternate reality--harder in many ways, but also strangely familiar and comforting. Now Ida has to make some tough choices. Which Ida would she rather be? Where exactly is home? What does it take to really belong?

Ida's dilemma becomes more frightening as the day approaches when Israeli bulldozers are coming to demolish another home in her family's village...