Summary of home of the brave by katherine applegate

are universal, I find it somewhat offensive she refers to Kek's homeland simply as Africa for much of the book. While it's a nice sentiment to believe feelings of loss, fear, the struggle to belong, etc. The loss and fear, the struggle to belong, the hopes for the future: that’s all part of the process, no matter where you’re from.' (. I found an interview with Applegate addressing this where she responds with, 'Although I did very specific research, it seemed to me that many aspects of the refugee experience are universal. While I found the book compelling, my big complaint about it is that the reader doesn't learn Kek is from Sudan until maybe about halfway through the book.

For starters, I think I should start a tag called something like, 'Books about refugees and/or people of color from war torn countries written by white women' because for some reason lately I have been coming across more and more books that would fall under this genre (The Breadwinner author, I'm looking at you). Ages 10-14.I have some reservations about the book. Precise, highly accessible language evokes a wide range of emotions and simultaneously tells an initiation story. Kek endures a mixture of failures (he uses the clothes washer to clean dishes) and victories (he lands his first paying job), but one thing remains constant: his ardent desire to learn his mother's fate.

Prefaced by an African proverb, each section of the book marks a stage in the narrator's assimilation, eloquently conveying how his initial confusion fades as survival skills improve and friendships take root. An onslaught of new sensations greets Kek ('This cold is like claws on my skin,' he laments), and ordinary sights unexpectedly fill him with longing (a lone cow in a field reminds him of his father's herd when he looks in his aunt's face, 'I see my mother's eyes/ looking back at me'). The boy has traveled by 'flying boat' to Minnesota in winter to live with relatives who fled earlier. After witnessing the murders of his father and brother, then getting separated from his mother in an African camp, Kek alone believes that his mother has somehow survived.

In her first stand-alone book, Applegate (the Animorphs series) effectively uses free verse to capture a Sudanese refugee's impressions of America and his slow adjustment.

Summary of home of the brave by katherine applegate