Home of the Brave

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.

Katherine Applegate is the author of several bestselling series, including Animorphs, as well as the picture book, The Buffalo Storm (Clarion).
Home of the Brave is Katherine Applegate’s first standalone novel. “In Kek’s story, I hope readers will see the neighbor child with a strange accent, the new kid in class from some faraway land, the child in odd clothes who doesn’t belong,” she says. “I hope they will see themselves.”
Ms. Applegate lives with her family in North Carolina.

“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