APR/MAY 08 - AudioFile
Dominic Hoffman's voice, old and weary, may at first cause confusion in listeners' minds. But not for long, for they'll soon enter the heart of Kek, a 10-year-old Sudanese refugee who finds himself in Minnesota in the cold of winter. Kek, who has seen his father and brother killed, waits for his displaced mother to arrive in the United States and tries to sort out the strangeness of his aunt's home and an ESL class that has students with "16 ways of talking." As narrator, Hoffman emphasizes the free-verse writing, his pauses strengthening the melody of the language. The story is emotional and might seem stereotypical in print, but the way Hoffman lets the words wash over listeners will engage them with the lyricism of Kek's story. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
In her first stand-alone book, Applegate (the Animorphs series) effectively uses free verse to capture a Sudanese refugee's impressions of America and his slow adjustment. After witnessing the murders of his father and brother, then getting separated from his mother in an African camp, Kek alone believes that his mother has somehow survived. The boy has traveled by "flying boat" to Minnesota in winter to live with relatives who fled earlier. An onslaught of new sensations greets Kek ("This cold is like claws on my skin," he laments), and ordinary sights unexpectedly fill him with longing (a lone cow in a field reminds him of his father's herd; when he looks in his aunt's face, "I see my mother's eyes/ looking back at me"). Prefaced by an African proverb, each section of the book marks a stage in the narrator's assimilation, eloquently conveying how his initial confusion fades as survival skills improve and friendships take root. Kek endures a mixture of failures (he uses the clothes washer to clean dishes) and victories (he lands his first paying job), but one thing remains constant: his ardent desire to learn his mother's fate. Precise, highly accessible language evokes a wide range of emotions and simultaneously tells an initiation story. A memorable inside view of an outsider. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)
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From the Publisher
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
APR/ MAY 08 - AudioFile
Dominic Hoffman's voice, old and weary, may at first cause confusion in listeners' minds. But not for long, for they'll soon enter the heart of Kek, a 10-year-old Sudanese refugee who finds himself in Minnesota in the cold of winter. Kek, who has seen his father and brother killed, waits for his displaced mother to arrive in the United States and tries to sort out the strangeness of his aunt's home and an ESL class that has students with "16 ways of talking." As narrator, Hoffman emphasizes the free-verse writing, his pauses strengthening the melody of the language. The story is emotional and might seem stereotypical in print, but the way Hoffman lets the words wash over listeners will engage them with the lyricism of Kek's story. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
