Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

A sandstorm passes;

The stars remain.

African Proverb

- Katherine Applegate, Home of the Brave, Pg. 243

Summary: Kek arrives in Minnesota in the middle of winter from a refugee camp in Africa.  He has lost his father and brother and has been separated from his mother, but he keeps hope alive that someday in the immediate future he and his mother will be reunited.  Until then he is taken in by his aunt and cousin. Dealing with the loss of all his immediate family and the only way of life he has ever known is difficult but Kek pulls strength from the lessons he has learned from his family and the new friends that he makes in America.  Kek works hard to understand what is happening around him and continuely searches inside himself to discover how to start building a new life in ta strange land. 

Themes: Courage, Loneliness, Friendship, Family, Refugees/Immigration, Sudan/America, Home, Verse

Grade Level: 5^th grade and up

Possible Student Reaction: Students will hear Kek’s voice in every line of verse, just as I did when I read this book.  They will think it is funny, all his misunderstandings while learning English but they will be laughing with Kek and not at him.  We they finish reading this book they will have a new understanding of what it feels like to be different. 

Analysis:  Home of the Brave, is a wonderful introduction to a story done in free verse.  Because it is written in free verse using short choppy lines in the beginning and lengthening those lines toward the end, it helps to reinforce Kek’s voice and thought process in his broken English.  At the beginning Kek is hesitant with the language and by the end he has grown to understand and speak better but it is far from perfect.  This creates such an emotional connection to the character that you are brought into everything he thinks and experiences.

Even though Kek has come from such a violent and extreme situation, Applegate chooses to focus on the emotions of his displacement and his fierce desire to be strong and understand who he is now.  This perspective is what defines the title, Kek is brave to come and make a new home in our home of the brave.   This was my favorite of all the books I read this semester!  I will always hear Kek’s voice in head.

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Discussion Questions and Ideas

Compare and contrast Sudan with Minnesota as home for Kek.

Discuss: What is a home?

How do you treat a new or different member of your school community? Do you view it differently after reading this book? How would you have treated Kek?

Imagine how you might feel visiting a foreign country. What would miss the most? Write a journal of an imaginary trip to Africa.

Chose a passage from the book. Discuss why the author chose the specific words for that passage.

Why do you think the title, Home of the Brace was chosen for this book?

How does the cover make you feel? Could you design a different cover?

These discussion questions and a list of Read-a-Likes can be found at the Rhode Island Teen Book Award site.



Idioms

Language helps us not only to communicate, but also to understand the world around us.  We are helpless in a society, if we cannot speak its language.  As someone learns a new language, there is more to master than just vocabulary and grammar.  There are odd phrases that simply do not make literal sense.  These are idioms, and we use them every day. 

When Kek is faced with idioms, his response is often funny to us and to others in the book.  He is sometimes bewildered.

Look at some of these instances in the novel:

            Page 60—“The kids will eat you alive.”

            Page 108—“You need some time to get your feet wet.”

            Page 115—“Meantime, keep your eyes open.”

Now explore idioms with your students.  How many can they list? Then, go to the website to search for more idioms:

http://www.sky-net-eye.com/eng/dictionary/englis/idioms/american

Proverbs

Each part of Home of the Brave begins with an African proverb.  Proverbs have special meanings to the cultures from which they come, but they are universal in nature.  Discuss with your students the meanings of the five proverbs found in the novel.  Then ask them to bring in proverbs, sayings, or words of wisdom that come from their families. 

The information about idioms and proverbs was created by Clifford Wohl at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25323050/Guide-to-Home-of-the-Brave



Poetry

To hear more poetry go to http://www.favoritepoem.org/ founded by Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States.