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Published Apr 2022
256 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh - a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan - stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join.
The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, "Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?"
Learning America traces the story of how Mufleh grew a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children. The journey is inspiring and hard-won: Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to heal trauma, create belonging, and accelerate learning. Finally, this gifted storyteller delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren't supposed to be possible for children born into trauma--stories that shine powerful light on the path to educational justice for all of America's most left-behind.
"[M]agnificent...an incredible story...Readers will be stunned." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Founding director of the nonprofit Fugees Family, an organization devoted to educational justice for refugee and immigrant children, Mufleh makes her book debut with an absorbing account of her journey from a Jordanian immigrant to an influential educational leader and activist...An impassioned, penetrating critique and inspiring model for progress." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This is a beautifully written memoir of one woman's commitment to equality and respect for displaced people in the United States; her schools' achievements are impressive evidence. Highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A truly extraordinary story of selflessness, compassion, and the pursuit of justice for one of the most vulnerable communities in our society: refugee children. Luma Mufleh gorgeously weaves her story as a gay, Jordanian immigrant living in America and her lifelong passion of coaching soccer to better the lives of refugee kids across the country." - Jose Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American and best-selling author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
"This is much more than a book about an inspiring soccer team. It's the story of what schools and sports can do to help heal trauma, foster community, and create opportunities for young people to succeed. To Luma Mufleh's credit, it's also a story about what schools can't do -- and shouldn't be expected to do -- to overcome society's ills." - Paul Tough, author of Whatever It Takes and How Children Succeed
This information about Learning America was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Luma Mufleh is the founder of Fugees Family, with schools now in Georgia and Ohio and an expanding footprint bringing educational equity to refugee resettlement communities across America. Her TED Talk on educational justice for refugee families was viewed more than 1.7 million times.
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