Starred review from School Library Journal for K's "Home of the Brave."

From School Library Journal:

*APPLEGATE, Katherine. Home of the Brave. 250p. CIP. Feiwel & Friends. 2007. Tr $16.95. ISBN 978-0-312-36765-7. LC 2006032053.
Gr 5-7–American culture, the Minnesota climate, and personal identity are examined in this moving first-person novel written in free verse. Kek comes to the U.S. from war-torn Sudan via a refugee camp. He arrives on a “flying boat” and is mystified by “not dead” trees in winter. Through his fresh eyes, readers see both the beauty and the ugliness of our way of life. The words themselves are simple, but Applegate introduces some hard ideas. How does someone know he has done well at the end of the day if all the familiar benchmarks are suddenly gone? Kek is both a representative of all immigrants and a character in his own right. A creative thinker, a problem-solver, and an optimist despite the horrors that have befallen him, he is a warm and winning protagonist. He bridges his herding culture and our own by finding a cow that needs his care, even in a metropolitan area, and uses ingenuity when threatened with yet more loss on that front. Kek will be instantly recognizable to immigrants, but he is also well worth meeting by readers living in homogeneous communities.–Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL

Once again proving that I may be all kinds of stupid, but I have very good taste in wives.

This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on Sunday, September 16, 2007. You can leave your response.