HOME OF THE BRAVE
By Katherine Applegate
Summer Reading Packet
Instructions: This is your reading packet of activities.As you read, you may work on different sections
based on the following outline on the next page. I hope you enjoy this story about a boy named Kek
who lived in Sudan, Africa and experienced life that is hard to imagine for a young boy. The book is
from his perspective when he is in America, however, you will learn about his past in Africa. Complete
all activities for the first day of school! We will go over the packet and discuss in detail many details of
the novel when you return to school during the 1st two weeks.
PACKET OUTLINE
1. Read the Informational Text BEFORE reading the novel. This will provide you with background
information about what happened in Africa in the 1980s and 90s. Answer the 3 to 4 questions
with the articles.
2. Read Part 1. As you read Part I, fill out the CHARACTER TRAIT & EVIDENCE handout. Read
the directions and use textual evidence for justification.
3. Work on your VOCABULARY WORDS and create your own copy (another sheet of paper) of
the vocabulary words. You should have 6 of these attached.
4. Read Part II. After reading Part II, fill our the EYE: RL 6.6 Point of View sheet. Read directions
and fill out.
5. Complete the Part II questions - Reading Comprehension.
6. Read Part III. Still work on your vocabulary words with frayer model!
7. Complete the Compare and Contrast graphic organizer for Lou’s and Hannah’s perspective.
8. Read Part IV (4) and finish the novel. Match the PLOT MATCH handout after the book; draw
your most impacted scene.
9. Read your culminating project handout and rubric and complete.
HOME OF THE BRAVE: PART I
Informational Text Section
Instructions: Read the two articles before reading the
novel. Underline and annotate the articles that
describe the life of the “lost boys” in Africa.
After reading: Answer the questions in 2 to 4
sentences.
The Lost Boys of Sudan
October 3, 2014 by The IRC
In 1987, some 20,000 Sudanese children fled a bloody civil war in their
homeland. Known as "The Lost Boys," nearly 4,000 of them eventually found
refuge in the United States. Photo: IRC
In 1987, civil war drove an estimated 20,000 young boys from their families and villages in southern Sudan. Most just six
or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction into the northern army. They walked more than a
thousand miles, half of them dying before reaching Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The survivors of this tragic exodus
became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.
In 2001, close to four thousand Lost Boys came to the United States seeking peace, freedom and education. The
International Rescue Committee helped hundreds of them to start new lives in cities across the country.
South Sudan: The story of one Lost Boy who eventually
made it home
In the 58 years since independence, periods of peace in Sudan have been brief. Today there are new violent clashes
unfolding in South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. While parties meet to discuss a peaceful
resolution, this is the story of one man changed forever by the previous civil war, which lasted 22 years and claimed 2
million lives.
Gabriel Bol Deng vividly remembers the first thing he ate when he was in the United States. It was at a Subway
restaurant, and he ordered the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich. As he was moving down the line, he was
offered an impressive global offering of cheese: American and Swiss. They asked him what he wanted, and he
requested “the African cheese.” Of course, there wasn’t any.
It was his second day in the US. In 2001 he, along with around 150 other “lost boys of Sudan,” were resettled in
Syracuse, New York after years of walking through hardship that almost exceeds comprehension.
The first sound of gunfire came in the late afternoon while a 10-year-old Gabriel was in the grazing field with his
family’s cattle. As he ran towards his village, now under a North Sudan group of militiamen called Murahileen, he was
scooped up by a fleeing man and carried away from danger.
Within moments, his rescuer was shot in the back, and an exposed Gabriel played dead as he listened to the shooters
congratulate themselves for killing the man “and his son.” It was 1987, and predators both animal and human, would
continue to chase Gabriel and his fellow South Sudanese for years to come, for thousands of miles, and across the
border frontiers of three countries.
The village of Ariang is located in the northwest of South Sudan, and today, is home to 3,000 people. Gabriel and his
eight siblings were happy and well-off thanks to the family’s large herd of cattle, which determines wealth for the
Dinka people.
“If you have hope, make good decisions, and never give up – you can move Mt. Kilamanjaro,” his parents told
him. “You control 90% of your life by how you react to the problems you face.”
In hindsight, no better advice could have been given to a child who was about to have everything in his life – including
his parents – stripped away.
For four months, Gabriel and thousands of other children, mostly boys, who were separated or orphaned during the
ensuing civil war, walked. They walked without destination, food, water or protection. Tree leaves acted as
sustenance and papyrus leaves proved flimsy vessels for crossing the Nile into Ethiopia. Many were lost to the
crocodiles
.
Illustration of a river crossing by Mac Anyat, a 17-year-old in Kakuma refugee camp 2004. Courtesy of PBS.
But Ethiopia would be better. There was food and safety there, the boys were told. After months of fighting for each
minute of survival, a new rock bottom was reached upon arriving at a newly formed refugee camp. It was not the
promised land, but somehow an equal pit of misery and hunger.
To make matters worse, he was severely weakened by a poisonous snake bite, bitter and angry at the broken
promise of a reprieve. One evening, as he laid down to sleep feeling and hoping that he would not wake up, he found
his parents.
They came to him in a dream, the only way they would ever come to him again, and they spoke the words that he
says changed his life. He was scolded by his father for giving up hope and for letting his negative mental state get so
bad it was worsening his physical health, and they told him they loved him more than he could ever know.
Gabriel carried on as best one could in that miserable place for four whole years until 1991, when Ethiopia entered
into its own civil war. When planes began bombing the camp from above, it was time to start walking once again. First
back to South Sudan, where the refugees were caught on the frontier between two wars, and finally on to Kenya.
And it was in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, still the world’s third largest in operation, where he found
education. “Education is our mother and our father,” Gabriel says.
An aerial view of Kakuma in 2012. Photo credit
africanasylum.blogspot.com
When many people hear the phrase “refugee camp” a temporary tent city may come to mind. The reality however is
quite permanent for millions worldwide, with the average person spending decades in this uncontrollable state of
dangerous limbo.Kakuma was equally as dangerous, with tension and violence from existing residents of the region,
now having to share already stretched resources with hundreds of thousands of new, long-term arrivals. (There are
still more than 36,000 Sudanese refugees in Kenya today according to the UNHCR.) After nine years in Kenya,
Gabriel was chosen to resettle in Syracuse, New York.
A college education, a teaching job and a family followed. Gabriel’s first trip back to the village of Ariang came in
2007. There he found an uncle and two surviving brothers, who like him, had assumed the other had been dead for
20 years.
Gabriel (center in red) greets family members on his first
return to Ariang. Photo credit Michelle Gabel
After listening to residents’ needs and seeing the local children attend school outdoors under a tree, Gabriel started
the Hope for Ariang Foundation which has built a proper school building one handmade brick at a time. Equally as
important, they built wells. Millions of girls around the world spend their days fetching water instead of attending
school so the foundation built a well at the school itself along with one in each of the five surrounding villages.
Villagers gather at a well built by Gabriel’s foundation in
Ariang. Photo credit Michelle Gabel
The school now has over 500 students, including many girls. Gabriel admits to internal struggle when it came to
deciding between his good job in America and starting a foundation on a shoestring budget for his childhood home.
“Your human worth is measured by how your attitude and actions affect other human beings,” Gabriel says. “How you
reach out and help others determines this, not possessions.”
As for his feelings about his introduction to the United States – the chicken teriyaki sandwich at Subway, Gabriel says,
“I ate one yesterday.”
The Hope for Ariang Foundation is currently constructing volunteer housing to grow the number of teachers able to
assist the school.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the purpose of these articles? Who is the intended audience? Why was the article written?
2. In the 2nd article, write out the order of events Gabriel Bol Deng’s life.
3. Write new information learned from each article. (at least 2 things)
4. What is the attitude expressed by the speaker in the 2nd article? (think about the feelings you received)
END OF PART I: CHARACTER TRAITS and EVIDENCE
[RL 3]
KEK
Instructions: After reading Part I, go back and think about Kek’s character traits (internal and external) from each
chapter. There are 16 boxes for each chapter. If you repeat a trait, only repeat it 3 times and justify it with different
evidences from the chapters. Use evidence from each chapter with the page number to justify why that is Kek’s triat.
TRAIT
EVIDENCE FROM CHAPTER
(Put Page Number)
PART II of ASSIGNMENT: KEK’s CHARTER
CHANGE [RL 3]
Instructions: Complete after reading the book.
In the three boxes, describe Kek’s character change from beginning to end. Use your chart above (Part1) to guide
your beginning response. Use Part II of the book for the second and Part III for the third. Write at least 3 to 4
sentences in each box describing the character and by the end, the character change of KEK. Think about what
makes him change or even who, as well as the PLOT of the story.
1. Beginning Characterization of KEK
3. Write about KEKs change by the end of
the book and in Part III. Think about the
climax and resolution of the novel.
FRAYER MODEL: Make your own on a separate sheet of paper for your vocabulary words. Pick at least 4 words to
create a frayer model from the list below.
VOCABULARY FOR BOOK
Vocabulary Words:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Refugee (pg. 6)
Wading (pg. 13)
Barren (pg. 50)
Inquiry (pg. 57)
Translation (pg. 98)
Foster (pg. 103)
Vast (pg. 207)
Escort (pg. 237)
POINT OF VIEW
Part II: Ganwar’s Perspective
Instructions: How does Ganwar view living in America? Record his thoughts and feelings in
the pupil of his eye (the center circle). Then identify a prior experience and record it in the
background of Ganwar’s eye.
Comprehension Questions Part 2
Directions: Read the questions and answer them in complete sentences or choose the correct answer. Use the book
to help you, if needed. Use details from the text to support your answer. Record the Concept of Comprehension©
on the line next to each question.
_____ 1. What happened to Kek’s mother? a. She escaped when the camp that she was in was attacked. b. She is
safe and will be coming to Minnesota. c. She was killed when the camp that she was in was attacked. d. After the
camp that she was in was attacked, she may have left for another camp.
_____ 2. Why does Kek say he was lucky when he tells Hannah about when his father and brother were killed?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____ 3. Why does Kek tell his teacher he cannot have the desk she seats him at?
a. He prefers to sit on the floor.
b. He thinks he has to buy it with cattle and he does not have any cows.
c. He does not think he deserves it.
d. He thinks it is too fancy to sit at.
5. What happens when Kek tries to wash the dishes?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___ 6. What does Kek mean when he says that the bus is “even bigger than the school bus, with the sour breath and
slow growl of a starving animal”?
a. The bus is hungry.
b. There is a hungry, smelly animal on the bus.
c. The bus is turning into a mean animal.
d. The bus makes noise and smells when it pulls up.
____ 7. List at least 3 mistakes Kek makes because he doesn’t fully understand English.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________ __
8. How are Hannah and Kek’s life situations similar?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
COMPARE/CONTRAST: Part III
Instructions: Compare and Contrast Lou’s perception of Kek with Hannah’s by completing the graphic
organizer below. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
Similarities:
Name: ___________________________________
Book: ___________________ Standard: RL 3 Literary Elements
In your box, visualize and draw a scene that most impacted you. In your drawing, emphasize the setting of the
scene. At the bottom of the box in 3 to 5 sentences describe and justify why it impacted you. Also, in another describe
what mood is portrayed in that particular scene and justify. HINT: Think about what scene that brought out the
strongest feeling you had in the book and draw it! Think about what happened in that scene. I want you to shade and
color the scene to bring out the setting and vivid details. Use the entire space.
CULMINATING PROJECT: THEME (LIFE LESSON OF THE STORY)
Theme: Perseverance
Task: On a poster size paper or a technology site listed below create a collage of pictures, words from the text, and
creative sentences that describes the theme of perseverance in the novel Home of the Brave. Think about Kek,
Ganwar, and Hannah’s actions and life situations and how they kept moving forward. Use examples from the text on
your collage
(Option) Technology Websites for Collages:
Padlet.com
Stormboard.com
http://en.linoit.com/ Glogster.edu
popplet.com
These technology web 2.0 tools are for collages and bulletin board online tools. You can use these instead of doing
in by hand, however, you will have to register for each one. Make sure you use the FREE educational section of the
website. Play around with each one, if you want to use technology, and make sure you include the items above.
RUBRIC FOR PROJECT
4 (A)
3 (B)
2 (C)
1 (D)
Content:
THEME
Clearly articulates
the theme by using
8 or more evidences
from the text; Every
evidence supports
the theme of
perseverance and is
justified why
perseverance is the
theme on the
poster
Cleary articulates
the theme of
using 6-7
evidences from
the text; Evidence
supports the text;
Theme is stated
on poster
Articulates the theme by
using 5 evidences from the
text; states the theme on
the poster with more than
½ of evidences supporting
the theme of perseverance
Articulates the
theme by using 2-4
evidences from the
text; states the
theme with less
than ½ of evidence
supporting the
theme of
perseverance
Grammar/
Punctuation
No more than 3
grammar, spelling,
and punctuation
mistakes on poster
or web 2.0 tool
No more than 5
grammar, spelling,
and punctuation
mistakes on
poster or web 2.0
tool
No more than 8 grammar,
spelling, and punctuation
mistakes on poster or web
2.0 tool
10 or more
grammar, spelling,
and punctuation
mistakes
Pictures/words
/Sentences
All pictures, words,
& sentences that
are included on
poster or web 2.0
tool make clear
sense to the
themed collage and
are appropriate to
the theme;
organized in an
unique manner that
encompasses
perseverance
All pictures,
words, &
sentences are
included on
poster or web 2.0
tool make clear
sense to the
themed collage
and relate to the
theme;
information is
organized in a
neat manner
All pictures, words, &
sentences are included on
poster or web 2.0 tool
make sense to the theme
of perseverance;
information isn’t organized
in a manner that is visually
appealing
Words, Sentences,
& pictures are
included but doesn’t
make sense to the
theme of
perseverance