home of the brave book by katherine applegate

Characters frequently serve as mouthpieces for either side, sometimes deadly serious and other times tongue-in-cheek (“I don’t know about you guys, but ever since I read Wait Till Helen Comes, I’ve been thinking about worshipping Satan”).

Spencer, a despised classmate’s mom, to a qualified defense of intellectual freedom at a school board meeting: “Nobody has the right to tell you what books you can and can’t read except your parents.” Meanwhile, as more books vanish, Amy Anne sets up a secret lending library of banned titles in her locker-a ploy that eventually gets her briefly suspended by the same unsympathetic principal who fires the school’s doctorate-holding white librarian for defiantly inviting Dav Pilkey in for an author visit. Frankweiler has been removed from the library at the behest of Mrs. In a tale that is dominated but not overwhelmed by its agenda, Gratz takes Amy Anne, a young black bibliophile, from the devastating discovery that her beloved From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Lacking the quirks and foibles that bring characters to life, Kek seems more a composite of traits designed to instruct readers than an engaging individual in his own right.ĭespite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers interested in the plight of war refugees.Ī shy fourth-grader leads the revolt when censors decimate her North Carolina school’s library. His tribe, culture and language are never identified personal details, such as appearance and age, are vague or omitted. Full of wide-eyed amazement and unalloyed enthusiasm for all things American, Kek is a generic-bordering on insulting-stereotype. When the owner plans to sell the cow, Kek becomes despondent. Later he returns with Hannah, a friendly foster child, and talks the cow’s owner into hiring him to look after it. From the author of the Animorphs series comes this earnest novel in verse about an orphaned Sudanese war refugee with a passion for cows, who has resettled in Minnesota with relatives.Īrriving in winter, Kek spots a cow that reminds him of his father’s herd, a familiar sight in an alien world.

Home of the brave book by katherine applegate