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…

Nora Lester Murad is a writer, educator, and activist. She co-authored Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots, and edited I Found Myself in Palestine: Stories of Love and Renewal From Around the Globe. From a Jewish American family, Nora moved from California to study in the Middle East. She married a Muslim Palestinian, and raised three daughters in the West Bank and in the US. She posts her writing at www.noralestermurad.com.