Home of the Brave

Description: The author of the bestselling Animorphs series (written under the name K.A. Applegate) delivers her first stand-alone literary novel: a beautifully wrought story about an African immigrant to America, who makes a journey from hardship to hope.

Brief description: Katherine Applegate is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of beloved and award-winning books for young readers, including Pocket Bear, Odder, Home of the Brave, Crenshaw, Wishtree, Willodeen, and The One and Only Ivan, for which she won the Newbery Medal. She is also the author of the Animorphs series, a beginning reader series, Doggo and Pupper, illustrated by Charlie Alder, and the picture book, Odder: An Otter's Story, illustrated by Charles Santoso. Her middle-grade books, Dogtown and Mouse and His Dog, co-authored with Gennifer Choldenko, were also instant New York Times bestsellers. Katherine Applegate lives in Nevada with her family.

Review Quotes:

"Beautiful. Thank you for publishing this book. Thank Katherine Applegate for writing it." --Karen Hesse

"Moving . . . Kek is both a representative of all immigrants and a character in his own right." --School Library Journal, Starred Review

"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

"This beautiful story of hope and resilience . . . is an almost lyrical story." --Voice of Youth Advocates

"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

"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