About

Nora Lester Murad's young adult novel, "Ida in the Middle" (Interlink Publishing, 2022), won the Arab American Book Award, the Middle East Book Award, a Skipping Stones Honor Award, and was selected as a finalist for the Jane Addams Peace Association's Children's Book Prize. Her creative nonfiction anthology, "I Found Myself in Palestine: Stories of Love and Renewal from Around the Globe" was long-listed for the Palestine Book Award. She is also author of the art/poetry/gift book, "Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots" and a just-published anthology, "Resisting Erasure: Libraries in Palestine and Palestine in Libraries" (Library Juice Press). Nora provides teaching and advocacy resources for K-12 educators and librarians at www.IdaInTheMiddle.com. Her extensive list of published peer-reviewed journal articles, reportage, commentary, and opinion can be found on her blog at www.NoraLesterMurad.com.

Featured Work

Ida in the Middle

2022
Cover of "Ida in the Middle" with award seal

Every time violence erupts in the Middle East, Ida knows what’s coming next. Some of her classmates always treat her like 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’ll never fit in. Ida wishes she could disappear.

One day, dreading a final class project, Ida hunts for food. She discovers a jar of olives that came from a beloved aunt in her family’s village near Jerusalem. Ida eats one and finds herself there—as if her parents had never left Palestine! Things are different in this other reality—harder in many ways, but also strangely familiar and comforting. Now she has to make some tough choices. Which Ida would she rather be? How can she find her place?

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

Other Works

  • Resisting Erasure: Libraries in Palestine and Palestine in Libraries

    2026

  • I Found Myself in Palestine

    2020

  • Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots

    2018

Awards and Recognition

  • Arab American Book Award
  • Middle East Book Award
  • Skipping Stones Honor Award
  • Jane Addams Peace Association Children's Book Prize, finalist
  • Palestine Book Award, long-list