Sudanese Lost Boy Finds Home in Minnesota

Lately, I've been on a young adult literature kick.

Years ago, when I taught 8th grade, I used to read a lot of YA books, but since leaving the classroom behind, I'd kind of forgotten about the genre. But not anymore. I'm back into young adult and children's literature with a vengeance.

A friend, a former teacher herself, recommended I read Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate.

I'm so happy I did. It's a gentle, touching novel about a young Sudanese boy who immigrates to America.

He arrives alone. His father and brother were killed in his country's brutal civil war and his mother is missing, unaccounted for. He is placed in Minnesota to live with an aunt and a cousin already here.

The story is told all in poems. The language is precise and poignant and sparse. It's just lovely. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I can't recommend this book enough. If you've got a young person in your life -- say middle school -- and you want to expose them to thoughtful prose and other cultures, this book is a winner.