Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Dec 2008
272 pages
Genre: Poetry & Novels in Verse
Publication Information
A man I helped to settle here
taught me a saying from Africa.
I'll bet you would like it:
A cow is God with a wet nose.
Kek comes from Africa where he lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived. Now she's missing, and Kek has been sent to a new home. In America, he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter—cold and unkind. But slowly he makes friends: a girl in foster care, an old woman with a rundown farm, and a sweet, sad cow that reminds Kek of home. As he waits for word of his mother's fate, Kek weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country.
"Precise, highly accessible language evokes a wide range of emotions and simultaneously tells an initiation story. A memorable inside view of an outsider." - Publishers Weekly
"The boy's first-person narrative is immediately accessible. Like Hanna Jansen's Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You, the focus on one child gets behind those news images of streaming refugees far away." - Booklist
"This book would make a great read-aloud as well as a discussion starter on the reasons why people choose to immigrate or how they might feel in a strange land. The book highlights the importance of attitude to success, a life lesson worth repeating as well. " - VOYA
"Readers older than the stated age range would surely enjoy such a beautiful story." - Children's Literature
"Starred Review. Kek will be instantly recognizable to immigrants, but he is also well worth meeting by readers living in homogeneous communities." - School Library Journal
"The evocative spareness of the verse narrative will appeal to poetry lovers as well as reluctant readers and ESL students." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"... beautifully written in free verse ... a thought-provoking book about a topic sure to evoke the empathy of readers." - KLIATT
This information about Home of the Brave was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katherine Applegate's many books include the Roscoe Riley Rules chapter book series, a picture book entitled The Buffalo Storm, and the award-winning novel, Home of the Brave. With her husband, Michael Grant, she wrote the hugely popular series Animorphs, which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.
Katherine was inspired to write The One and Only Ivan after reading about the true story of a captive gorilla known as Ivan, the "Shopping Mall Gorilla." The real Ivan lived alone in a tiny cage for twenty-seven years at a shopping mall before being moved to Zoo Atlanta after a public outcry. He was a beloved celebrity at the zoo, which houses the nation's largest collection of western lowland gorillas, and was well known for his paintings, which he "signed" with a thumb-print.
Katherine lives in California with her husband and two children.
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