Jen Vincent at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye and Ricki Ginsburg at Unleashing Readers cohost It's Monday! What are You Reading? weekly on their blogs. To see what others are reading and recommending each Monday, or to participate, be sure to head over to these blogs.
We had a snow day on Friday, and I spent the first part of it reading Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. This one has been on my TBR list for a while, as many bloggers and other teachers have talked about it, and it was decadent to sit and read it cover to cover. If you haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend it. I started it with the idea that I'd pick up craft moves--I had a pencil in hand and a pad of sticky notes. Within about twenty pages, the plot swept me away. I'll have to go back on a rereading mission in order to mark some pages as mentor text possibilities because I was far too interested in Kek's story to want to take time writing in or about the text! While this story inspired me to learn more about Sudanese refugees since the main character is a ten year-old refugee and the story opens with him landing in Minnesota to live with relatives, it's also a universal story of friendship, making mistakes, and overcoming adversity. Told in verse, it would be a wonderful read aloud, as well as an important story for book clubs and conversations. Happy Reading,
Definitely one of my favorites! Glad you finally got to read it.
ReplyDeleteI have it from the library waiting, Melanie, and it's because of Ramona (above) that I do have it. What fun. I am going to read it!
ReplyDeleteHome of the Brave has been featured by one of the GatheringBooks ladies - and one of my teacher-students shared this as well during her book talk presentation in my class last year - I would have to find and read this one soonest. :)
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this title quite quickly too. I really found it powerful.
ReplyDeleteI ordered it and could read a sample, but not nearly enough. Can't wait to get the whole thing. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI liked this one quite a lot. We're doing One and Only Ivan in my Children's Lit class this week and know many students will want to follow that up with Home of the Brave. Sadly, all 4 of the copies I bought have disappeared! Will have to repurchase. Sigh!!
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