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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
I really liked Kek’s perspective on the refugee experience. He was heartwarmingly funny at times and tragically sad at other times. It’s an important book to read.
Audiobook - great narrator. even though it is from the perspective of a child, the voice is mature but it works.
This book is brilliant. Completely brilliant. My husband is an immigrant from Mexico and I have volunteered in a number of different ESL settings for both adults and children and I can not say enough great things about this book and the truth in it. The line that caught me and took my breath away was (I'm paraphrasing) "you may like America but you will never feel like you belong here." "Why not?" "Because they won't let you." Such deep themes of cultural identity, language and culture barriers, family. The narrator is so wonderfully done to capture some of the fragmenting with translation and learning a new language. After 3 of her books, I'm a raving Katherine Applegate fan.
My personal takeaways to remember - excellent read to explain to my kids about immigrants and help them relate to their father's experience. Some of the descriptions of french fries and ketchup remind me of my husbands story of the first time he saw and ate pizza in New York city. Heaven to him. So common to me. It is a great book for teaching the importance of tolerance, being understanding of other cultures. Again, sad things happen to the characters and they struggle. A lot. But, again, one of the main reasons I love Applegate is that she leaves us on a note of hope and happiness. I love it so much! I wish this was required reading in all schools!
This book is brilliant. Completely brilliant. My husband is an immigrant from Mexico and I have volunteered in a number of different ESL settings for both adults and children and I can not say enough great things about this book and the truth in it. The line that caught me and took my breath away was (I'm paraphrasing) "you may like America but you will never feel like you belong here." "Why not?" "Because they won't let you." Such deep themes of cultural identity, language and culture barriers, family. The narrator is so wonderfully done to capture some of the fragmenting with translation and learning a new language. After 3 of her books, I'm a raving Katherine Applegate fan.
My personal takeaways to remember - excellent read to explain to my kids about immigrants and help them relate to their father's experience. Some of the descriptions of french fries and ketchup remind me of my husbands story of the first time he saw and ate pizza in New York city. Heaven to him. So common to me. It is a great book for teaching the importance of tolerance, being understanding of other cultures. Again, sad things happen to the characters and they struggle. A lot. But, again, one of the main reasons I love Applegate is that she leaves us on a note of hope and happiness. I love it so much! I wish this was required reading in all schools!
“I think about the trees, the flowers,
the brown grass in the fields.
They can all be patient,
certain that spring will return.
They don’t have to hope.
They can be sure.
Hope is a thing made only for people,
a scrap to hold onto
in darkness and in light.
But hope is hard work.”
HOME OF THE BRAVE, Katherine Applegate
I have been immersing myself in books of hardness and hope the last few weeks. I have found that stories like HOME OF THE BRAVE, about a Lost Boy from Sudan named Kek, these stories simultaneously recognize the pain I see and bring me out of my own, sometimes self-centered pain. Kek arrives in the United States, and this book-in-verse follows his journey of marveling at and struggling with the abundance (grocery stores, libraries, schools). Kek brings light and perspective. These are the stories that make me glad I’m a reader. They point me toward hope; they transform me.
the brown grass in the fields.
They can all be patient,
certain that spring will return.
They don’t have to hope.
They can be sure.
Hope is a thing made only for people,
a scrap to hold onto
in darkness and in light.
But hope is hard work.”
HOME OF THE BRAVE, Katherine Applegate
I have been immersing myself in books of hardness and hope the last few weeks. I have found that stories like HOME OF THE BRAVE, about a Lost Boy from Sudan named Kek, these stories simultaneously recognize the pain I see and bring me out of my own, sometimes self-centered pain. Kek arrives in the United States, and this book-in-verse follows his journey of marveling at and struggling with the abundance (grocery stores, libraries, schools). Kek brings light and perspective. These are the stories that make me glad I’m a reader. They point me toward hope; they transform me.
I just finished this book this morning, July 4th,and it was the perfect read for this Independence Day. Home of The Brave, is a story about a young refugee from Sudan,named Kek, who arrives in Minnesota during winter. Through the help of the Refugee Resettlement Center, he is reunited with his cousin and aunt. In Minnesota, they wait to hear news of his mother who he got separated from in Sudan. His father and brother were killed. Told in verse, Kek's experiences of living in a different world, away from everything he knew and loved, embraces the reader to see how hard it is to make a home for oneself in unknown territories.
Separated into 5 parts, Kek's story evolves from feeling displaced due to traumatizing circumstances, learning in ESL classes, forming friendships, finding a sense of home in a tiny farm, and coming to terms with the fact that he is now living in a place of complexity, compared to what he lived through before.
A beautiful story where characters wonder and hope if liberty is truly meant for them.
Separated into 5 parts, Kek's story evolves from feeling displaced due to traumatizing circumstances, learning in ESL classes, forming friendships, finding a sense of home in a tiny farm, and coming to terms with the fact that he is now living in a place of complexity, compared to what he lived through before.
A beautiful story where characters wonder and hope if liberty is truly meant for them.
This is one of the Bluebonnet Nominees that I got for Isaac to read. I picked it up to look at it and couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed it. It's a verse novel, so it's a really quick read. I really liked the story and the characters.
Isaac started reading it and was having a hard time with the verse format and the many similies the author uses, so now I'm reading it with him. I think he may be a little too immature to grasp the message of the book, but hopefully he'll learn something about what it's like to be from a culture so different than ours.
Isaac started reading it and was having a hard time with the verse format and the many similies the author uses, so now I'm reading it with him. I think he may be a little too immature to grasp the message of the book, but hopefully he'll learn something about what it's like to be from a culture so different than ours.
I love Applegate's books & the idea is compelling, but--for me--this story falls flat.
It's a brief but pleasant story about a boy refugee learning to live in the US (with a very accepting community in Minnesota--good choice), while hoping his mother is alive and they can be together again.
The telling is very matter-of-fact (I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator is a bit plodding, which only increases it).
The ending is too pat for me.
Sweet, but nothing special here. Darn.
It's a brief but pleasant story about a boy refugee learning to live in the US (with a very accepting community in Minnesota--good choice), while hoping his mother is alive and they can be together again.
The telling is very matter-of-fact (I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator is a bit plodding, which only increases it).
The ending is too pat for me.
Sweet, but nothing special here. Darn.
Loved!
This simple book is the telling of a touching story about refugees, war and family all seen from a child’s perspective.
Surprisingly I found myself relating to so many events in Kek’s life.
A book for all ages!
Last pages definitely made me cry.
This simple book is the telling of a touching story about refugees, war and family all seen from a child’s perspective.
Surprisingly I found myself relating to so many events in Kek’s life.
A book for all ages!
Last pages definitely made me cry.
A quick read. A good book for middle school students. Some parts of the book is a little confusing due to it be written in verse.
Loved it. Beautiful, accessible narrative free verse poetry for young readers. Kek is so endearing that I teared up unexpectedly a few times. Kudos to Katherine Applegate for opening up a difficult conversation about immigrant experiences in America to a younger audience (think 5th grade). The book encouraged me to do my own research on the ongoing conflict in Sudan (where Kek is from) and the “Lost Boys” who inspired Kek’s story. Other reviewers have noted that she is a white woman writing about this Sudanese child’s immigrant experience and have criticized some elements of that: I would say that’s true and fair, to a certain extent. It’s certainly worth noting. However, considering this book is intended for younger audiences and serves as such a great *introduction* to these topics, I think she did a really beautiful job and would definitely recommend the book.