A review by internationalkris
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

4.0

Home of the Brave is a beautiful book about a young Sudanese boy named Kek who arrives in Minnesota where he hopes to make a home with his aunt and cousin. This is a novel in verse that reads very quickly with bright sparks of joy and humor mixed with sadness as Kek attempts to transition to a new world. In the following excerpt, the social worker is driving Kek from the airport when he sees a cow, the treasured animal of his homeland, and begs the social worker to stop the car:

To say the truth of it,
she is not the most beautiful of cows.
Her belly sags
and her coat is scarred
and her face tells me
she remembers sweeter days.

My father would not have stood
For such a weary old woman in his heard,
And yet to see her here
In this strange land
Makes my eyes glad.