Welcome to the New World by Jake Halpern

Illustrated by Michael Sloan

In the Fall of 2016, the Aldabaan family receives word that they have been approved to travel from Jordan to the United States.  Brothers Ibrahim and Issa are able to emigrate with their families, but they are leaving behind their mother and another brother and family.  This is after they have all fled war-torn Syria.  The eldest son, Naji, can't wait for the family to start their new lives in the United States, but the political climate has Ibrahim and his wife, Adeebah, unsure of what they're going in to.  Once in Connecticut, they receive help from IRIS, a refugee resettlement agency, and told that they need to become self-sufficient within four months.  The whole family adjusts to oddities of America, such as basements and Life Alert.  Naji and his sister, Amal, start school and are treated as outcasts.  The family constantly wonders if they've really left behind the worse life.

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