Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger (Children's Literature)
Kek’s life in Sudan is destroyed when his family is attacked. His father and brother are killed, and he becomes separated from his mother. He is sent to join his aunt’s family in Minnesota, where he is encouraged to be grateful for his new home, but Kek does not feel at home. His loss overwhelms him, as does his new, strange environment. He now shares a home with the cousin he so admired back in Sudan, but his cousin’s life has been shifted so dramatically he now seems as lost as Kek. The new country offers beauties and harshness, as do the people who surround Kek. He recognizes hope in an elderly widow’s cow that reminds him of his father’s herds and strives to make meaning in his life as he cares for the cow and its owner, but when her farm must be sold, how can Kek save the cow and himself? The author provides a lyrical journey for her readers as they experience, with Kek, the struggle of re-making an identity and the amazing resilience of hope. Readers older than the stated age range would surely enjoy such a beautiful story. 2007, Fiewel & Friends/Holtzbrink, $16.95. Ages 10 to 14.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2008)
When the flying boat / returns to earth at last / I open my eyes / and gaze out the round window. / What is all the white? I whisper. / Where is all the world?” Kek is feeling the disconcerting displacement and overwhelming loss that comes with being a refugee. While he’s grateful to be with his aunt and cousin, who are already settled, although struggling, in America, he is also filled with guilt—his father and brother were killed, and his mother disappeared in their harrowing journey to a refugee camp to escape the fighting that tore their lives apart in Sudan. Arriving in Minneapolis in the midst of winter, there is nothing in the landscape to remind Kek of his homeland until he spots a cow on the drive from the airport into the city. Kek and his family were cattle herders. With the help of Hannah, a girl living in his aunt’s building, Kek takes a bus back to the farm and convinces Lou, the woman who is struggling to keep it going, to let him work for her. He doesn’t care about money—a good thing because she has little to spare—he just craves the companionship of the cow and the sense of calm that comes over him when he’s with her. But Kek finds that friendship, as well as a sense of purpose, also help lift the weight of his sorrow, and help him deal with the challenges of life in a new land. Katherine Applegate’s quiet, stirring novel in verse only once specifies Kek’s homeland. Her story is told in the restrained yet powerful voice of a boy for whom it is simply, profoundly, thought of as “home.” CCBC Category: Fiction for Children. 2007, Feiwel and Friends, 249 pages, $16.95. Ages 10-14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 15))
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. Arriving in winter, Kek spots a cow that reminds him of his father's herd, a familiar sight in an alien world. Later he returns with Hannah, a friendly foster child, and talks the cow's owner into hiring him to look after it. When the owner plans to sell the cow, Kek becomes despondent. Full of wide-eyed amazement and unalloyed enthusiasm for all things American, Kek is a generic—bordering on insulting—stereotype. His tribe, culture and language are never identified; personal details, such as appearance and age, are vague or omitted. 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. Despite its lackluster execution, this story's simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers interested in the plight of war refugees. 2007, Feiwel & Friends/Holtzbrinck, 256p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 9 to 11. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

KaaVonia Hinton, Ph.D. (KLIATT Review, November 2007 (Vol. 41, No. 6))
With the help of Dave from the Refugee Resettlement Center, fifth grader Kek finds his aunt and cousin and settles into their Minneapolis apartment. Kek longs for all he has lost: “I feel the holes where/my mother,/my father,/my brother/should be, /my uncle/…and their…children, too.” Everything--the snow, below-zero temperatures, the TV, and even washing machines--seems foreign to Kek until he visits an emaciated cow on a small farm owned by an old woman named Lou. Kek’s father was a cattle herder in a village in sub-Saharan Africa, and he is convinced that he can help Lou take care of the cow. Once settled into an after-school job, he begins to fit in at school, especially when he’s surrounded by other English language learners in his ESL class. Kek manages to embrace his newfound freedom in America with the help of budding friendships with his teenaged cousin and Hannah, a fellow latchkey kid. Though beautifully written in free verse, Applegate leaves a number of unanswered questions about the war she briefly mentions, Kek’s family’s escape, and his release from the camp. Kek’s separation from his mother is also underdeveloped; thus, the reunion with her in the epilogue appears out of place and doesn’t quite ring true in this four-part novel. Despite these shortcomings, Home of the Brave is a thought-provoking book about a topic sure to evoke the empathy of readers. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J--Recommended for junior high school students. 2007, Holtzbrinck, Feiwel and Friends, 250p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 15.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2008 (Vol. 61, No. 6))
Famous for exploring alien worlds in Animorphs, Katherine Applegate here explores the more serious topic of feeling alone and alienated in a strange world, telling the story of Kek, a recent immigrant from an unspecified country in sub-Saharan Africa. Arriving in Minneapolis on a snowy day, Kek couldn’t be more out of his element. Still, he is determined and optimistic, much more so than his older cousin Gunwar, who has lost a hand in the conflict that tore Kek’s village apart and resulted in the deaths of Kek’s father and brother, and the disappearance and probable death of his mother as well. Drawn to animals (he befriends a sad cow immediately upon his arrival), he finds working at a farm reassuring, both because it’s reminiscent of home and because it provides him with a realm of competence amid a strange and bewildering new place. Meanwhile, he relates the process of adjusting to his new life in poignant and lyrical free verse, a stylistic choice that helps set the tone of a character who of necessity thinks in images when he can’t find the words to carry him from his old to his new language. His fifth-grader hopefulness contrasts sharply with his older cousin’s anger and despair, a keen observation on Applegate’s part of the difficulties older teens face upon being uprooted from their homes in adolescence, and the relative ease with which younger children adjust to new experiences. Kek’s observations about the weirdnesses of American culture and customs will be familiar to new immigrants and will cause non-immigrants to see everyday patterns and material possessions in a new light; the evocative spareness of the verse narrative will appeal to poetry lovers as well as reluctant readers and ESL students Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Feiwel, 249p., $16.95. Grades 6-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Readers can't help but be moved by Applegate's ten-year-old narrator, Sudanese refugee Kek. Living in Minneapolis, Kek mourns for his lost village life. Applegate constructs an artful free-verse narrative, though Kek's voice often sounds too old and too poetic. More authentic elements include a warm-hearted depiction of Kek's diverse ESL class and his confusion about day-to-day American life. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2007, Feiwel, 249pp, 16.95. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.

Chris Carlson (VOYA, August 2007 (Vol. 30, No 3))
Kek's brother and father are killed in the Sudan, and he is separated from his mother. A refugee group finds Kek a new life in Minneapolis with his aunt and teenaged cousin. Although Kek finds the culture, economics, and climate of America vastly different from Africa, he makes friends and assimilates easily. He gets a job taking care of a cow because it makes him feel closer to his homeland where his father raised cattle. When the woman who owns the animal is forced to sell her farm, Kek's inventiveness saves the cow from being destroyed, demonstrating his abounding ability to find the positive in hardship. This beautiful story of hope and resilience is written in free verse, a device that allows the author unlimited capacity to use colorful language and literary devices to compare the unfamiliar with the familiar, the positive with the negative. The result is an almost lyrical story of a young African boy who manages to remain upbeat despite the hardships and horror that he has witnessed and despite being thrust into an environment in sharp contrast to what he knows. Kek's voice is particularly strong as he models the difficulties experienced by a new immigrant. This book would make a great read-aloud as well as a discussion starter on the reasons why people choose to immigrate or how they might feel in a strange land. The book highlights the importance of attitude to success, a life lesson worth repeating as well. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2007, Feiwel and Friends/Holtzbrinck, 256p., $16.95. Ages 11 to 18.