Home+of+the+Brave

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate          
 * When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. 1
 * What is all the white? I whisper. 3
 * Do you like the cold? 3
 * The helping man greets me and there are many lines and questions and pieces of paper. 3
 * How can you live in this place? It burns your eyes! 4
 * Dead grass pokes through the unkind blanket of white. 4
 * He gives me a fat shirt and soft things like hands. 4
 * My arms stick out of the coat like lonely trees. 4
 * His laughter makes little clouds. 5
 * His car is red and coughs and burps when he tries to make it go. 6
 * He's like a song always out of tune, missing notes. 7
 * We are like a cow and a goat, wanting to be friends but wondering if it can ever be. 7
 * Who killed all the trees? 8
 * I reach into my pocket and feel the soft cloth I carry with me everywhere. 9
 * Blue and yellow, torn at the edges, the size of my hand, soft as new grass after good rain. 9
 * My mouth is going to get very sore, stumbling on words all day long. 9
 * I'd like to fly such a boat one day myself. 10
 * She will come, I say, and this time I use my words, my music. 10
 * I feel regret in my heart to use such a harsh sound with my new helping friend. 11
 * He glances in the looking back glass. 12
 * That used to be a big farm. Lot of land around here's getting sold off now. 12
 * The don't move belt across my chest pulls back . 12
 * I have not yet learned the meaning of heck, but I can see that it's a fine and useful word. 12
 * Her belly sags and her coat is scarred and her face tells me she remembers sweeter days. 13
 * In my old home back in AFrica, cattle mean life. 14
 * They are the way we know our place in the world. 14
 * I can see that she's pouting, with only snow and dead grass to keep her company. 14
 * An old woman comes out of the barn. She's carrying a bucket. 14
 * A cow is God with a wet nose. 15
 * She can't learn the way I am learning, word by slow, slow word. 16
 * How can I trust a place where even the ground plays tricks? 18
 * The door opens and my old life is waiting on the other side 19
 * I have learned about shaking hands. 20
 * When he grasps my hand we are like two calves in the clouds pretending we know how to fly. 20
 * Six long scars line his forehead. 21
 * How jealous I had been that day, too young for such an honor. 21
 * I know her to be a woman of many sorrows, carved down to a sharp stone by her luckless life. 22
 * I'll let you get settled, he says, but first I'll give you some lessons. 23
 * He pushes a tiny stick on the wall and the room turns to night, then blinks awake. 23
 * In my old home, my real home, we were a family, and our laughter kept us warm. 24
 * Remember that this'll take time, he says. 25
 * They say many things there, he says. You'll see how wrong they were. 25
 * Ah, he says, and optimist. 27
 * It's been a long time since I've known that feeling, like a soft blanket on a night when the wind howls. 28
 * My people are herders. 29
 * We move with the seasons, with the wet and the dry, so that they may be strong and well fed. 29
 * We cannot carry much with us, and so our stories don't make their homes in heavy books. 29
 * We hold our stories in our songs. 29
 * He knew songs of the stars and the wind, of love and betrayal, of war and regret. 30
 * If you tell me you can dance with the wind, if you tell me you can sleep with the lion, if you tell me you can harvest the stars, how can I doubt you? 31
 * I point to the magic water pot. 33
 * My ears look like they want to fly me away, and my smile takes up most of my face. 34
 * It's a strange pain to be with those you belong to and feel you don't belong. 35
 * Carefully I take a step onto the blanket cloud. 35
 * Please just be my brother, I don't need two fathers! 38
 * Sometimes, it seems to me,a hole can be as real and solid as a boulder or a tree. 39
 * Outside snowflakes tap at the window like stubborn mosquitoes. 40
 * So many people, but they still cannot fill the holes in the room. 42
 * What's that cloth you're holding? he asks 43
 * But even when you travel far, the ghosts don't stay behind. 44
 * Hoping isn't foolish, I say. 45
 * IF I can make it all the way here, then anything can happen. 45
 * Hoping doesn't make a thing true. 45
 * REmember how you jumped from the top of the acacia tree? 45
 * SHe is like newborn sun, fresh with promise, the just beginning moments before the day fills like a bucket with good and bad, sweat and longing. 47
 * I make trouble, I'm lazy. 47
 * I don't know why I have been so lucky, to be so loved. 48
 * He laughs, and then the round windows open and guns are there and hating words, and I am screaming empty white clouds of fear. 49
 * You only make a bridge where there is a river. 51
 * He has snow in his eyebrows. 53
 * It's my job to answer a bored lady's questions. 53
 * Her fingernails are shiny red, the color of blood. 53
 * A woman sits behind a pile of papers tall as a termite mound 56
 * Found her. Good news. Coming here. 57
 * I want to sound fierce and certain as a great lion. 58
 * THe song races ahead while I stumble behind, just one more thing I cannot know. 59
 * The kids will eat you alive, he says. 60
 * This is bad news, since I didn't know that they like to eat each other. 60
 * It isn't so bad, if you cover your face and other important places. 61
 * He finds a pair of hard blue pants and a shirt the color of sand. 61
 * All you must do is say Once there was... and then let you hoping find the words. 65
 * It's a place for a leader of men to work in, not a place for small children to learn their numbers. 66
 * THin metal doors with silver handles line the walls. 67
 * Waiting in a big- windowed room is a woman with black hair that dances and sturdy arms and eyes that tell jokes. 67
 * Everyone laughs, so I laugh too, because it's always good to be polite. 68
 * I smother the thought like an ember near dry grass. 68
 * You just bring your mind and your smile every day, OK? 69
 * My mouth will not stop smiling. 69
 * It's like playing a game with no rules. 70
 * I couldn't understand these crazy northern folds for the longest time. 71
 * Some of his words get lost on their way to my ears. 71
 * When will the learning begin? 72
 * SIxteen people with twelve ways of talking. 73
 * To hear the cattle again is good music. 75
 * Don't eat the mystery meat if you value your life. 77
 * I don't know where to go to enjoy my feast. 77
 * Fry, she says. One of the five major food groups. 79
 * She passes me a paper cup filled with strange and beautiful red food. 80
 * When a friend laughs, it's always a good surprise. 80
 * TO eat such happy food and think about words at the same time is much work. 81
 * How did he lose his hand? 82
 * Guilt grabs my throat. I will not go to that black place today. 84
 * Always they were too old to bother with me, unless it was for their own fun. 86
 * She isn't even at work yet, and already she's tired. 89
 * The freedom is a great gift, she says. 90
 * Carefully I place the cups and saucers and plates in the basket. 93
 * It's good to be a helping person. 93
 * If my father were here, he would be proud, I think. 93
 * The way down room smells like a rainy day. 93
 * I see six white boxes with doors. 93
 * I find a sleeping one and open the top. 93
 * Money, she explains. It makes the machine go. 95
 * Course you still have to dry it all, then fold it. 96
 * But just then the river sound stops and my machine begins to shake like a crazed dancer under a full moon. 97
 * I think this is what they call a problem with translation. 98
 * I cannot say why, but when I look at her I feel like I've gulped down a laugh that needs to fly free. 99
 * Perhaps this is my punishment for trying to do the work of a woman, I say. 100
 * This is your punishment for being a moron. 100
 * But don't get your hopes up. 101
 * She has a key like mine around her neck on a string. 102
 * You can't be sure what will happen. 104
 * LIFe changes. So you must hope. 104
 * She opens the tall cold box. 104
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- Chocolate milk
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- krazy glue
 * You need some time to get your feet wet. 108
 * That's called an idiom. 108
 * A man doesn't wear a paper hat and give out ketchup packets. 109
 * Ketchup is a fine food, isn't it? 109
 * Don't be intimidated.. They'll teach you the skills you need. 110
 * Sometimes if you ask enough, fathers turn maybe into yes. 111
 * He takes a little piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket and writes some words. 111
 * GIve her a pat for me, buddy. 112
 * I wave good-bye and smile to myself with the secret comfort of a big idea. 112
 * It's even bigger than the school bus, with the sour breath and slow growl of a starving animal. 113
 * She pours quarters into my glove. 113
 * Her money clatters into a box by the driver. 113
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- 4 quarters
 * No explanation, no letter. It just shows up. 114
 * There she is. SHe looks bored. And cold. 115
 * So, are you two selling something? Raising money for school? 118
 * SHe has many wrinkles to show her great knowledge of the world. 118
 * Chocolate pieces tease like jewels in sand. 119
 * Now tell me, how you come by your knowledge of cows. 119
 * She pauses to take a bite of cookie, and now she can't talk either. 120
 * The cold.. hurts. But the snowballs are good. 121
 * He stumbles a little when he crosses the room, and he carries the bitter smell of smoke. 123
 * The war is older than our fathers were. THe war is forever. 126
 * His words lie in my lap like huge rocks I am not strong enough to move. 127
 * One doesn't forego sleeping because of the possibility of nightmares. 129
 * In class we learn a new game called Interview. 131
 * She howled like a sick animal till my ears wanted to run away. 131
 * I take a deep breath. I'm weary from my long speech. 132
 * Now each person has an idea for a name. 133
 * We vote. Hamburger gets two votes. 135
 * So why am I so glad in my heart? 136
 * I sing her one of my father's songs and listen for an echo of his voice in mine. 137
 * She shelters me like a warm wall, and that is enough for this day. 137
 * They're going to fill out paperwork asking for a job at the places that sell fries. 138
 * He keeps rubbing the place where his hand once was. 138
 * I'm getting very good at not thinking about things. 139
 * What another man takes two hands to do, you can do with one. 140
 * You're lucky to have found this job. But you made the luck happen. 140
 * But come spring I sell organic veggies and flowers at the farmers' market, and you could help with that. 143
 * I can't take your charity. 143
 * Can you come back later? We have dung to shovel. 144
 * The other kids complain, but I am used to lines. 146
 * They flick their tails and check the horizon for danger. 147
 * They're safe here, but they don't know it . 147
 * We visit the petting zoo, with its animals for touching who will not eat your hands. 147
 * We are supposed to be watching the animals, but I can't stop looking at the people looking at all the animals. 148
 * Their class looks like our class, or maybe we look like them: many colors and shapes and words. 148
 * How could I have imagined the way they walk through the world side by side without fear, all free to gaze at teh same sky with the same hope? 148
 * To carry them, unseen as wind, is a heavy burden. 149
 * Hunger is a wild dog gnawing on a dry bone, mad with impatience but hoping still. 150
 * Why am I here, when so many others are not? 150
 * I should not take these gifts I do not deserve. 151
 * I'm excited to think I might already have a homeroom friend. 152
 * He holds up an apple half eaten. 153
 * I feel very lucky to be selected by my teacher for such an honor. 154
 * The grocery store has rows and rows of color of light, of easy hope. 156
 * I reach out and touch a piece of bright green food I've never seen before. 156
 * Flies teased her eyes and her arms hung like broken sticks. 158
 * All day long she whispered to the baby drink, drink, drink. 158
 * Each book is like a door waiting to be unlocked. 160
 * Today I'm thinking of how my mother always wanted to learn to read, to own a book, to open one of the magical presents and see what's inside. 160
 * It's just too much sometimes isn't it? WHen you had almost nothing. 162
 * I feel sort of...too lucky. 162
 * I have to make myself believe that a crumpled piece of green paper means something, means anything. 164
 * I watch as the stairs melt away, then reappear. 165
 * She pushes another button, then--- zoom!--- up we fly. 166
 * I think I left my stomach downstaris. 166
 * We don't have birthdays in the way that you do. 168
 * My own heart grows so big with pride I fear it might pop open like a ripe seedpod.169
 * you will have lived just half a life if you never love a cow. 170
 * Happy birthday and Happy Valentine's Day. 171
 * Leave the white girl alone. 171
 * It's hard to feel two things at once so I try not to feel anything. 173
 * Together we watch the TV machine tell its happy, easy stories. 173
 * it feels good to go somewhere simple, to work and sing and eat cookies with chocolate. 174
 * the six lines etched in his forehead glisten. 175
 * The initiation ceremony is part of another place---a place I may never return to. 175
 * Why would you want such scars? 175
 * How will I know when I'm a man? 175
 * I have a good, hurting blister to show for it. 177
 * More weeks pass. something strange is happening to the world. 178
 * Sprained the dang thing last night. 178
 * Even with your help, I just can't keep this place running anymore. 179
 * I have a sister in Los Angeles. 179
 * Inside is a cake, an amazing long cake. 185
 * There are words all over the cake in green letters. 187
 * After such a winter, summer comes like a present with a bow. 189
 * For a while, you are a fish in a warm, pretending lake. 190
 * They give me a card with my name on it, and let me look at book after book. 191
 * I'm starting to not remember. Sometimes I can't see her face in my mind. 192
 * Only when I'm asleep now is she real. 192
 * She fills paper after paper with words. 193
 * She's teaching me how to skateboard. 195
 * I can't leave you ,I say, or I think I ay, for my voice is swallowed by the roaring night. 199
 * Dawn comes, silence comes, blood and death are everywhere. 200
 * We all ran. It's the only reason we're here. 202
 * Even a brave man can't stop a bullet. 202
 * I don't want to be in a place where my words taste wrong in my mouth. 204
 * I want to be in a place where the things I love and know are there within my reach. 204
 * Maybe I can go to Washington to the President's house, and ask him to help find her. 205
 * That is what a good son would do. 207
 * I think of the vastness of my country. 207
 * You can't even watch the sun put on his bright pajamas and sink into bed. 208
 * What I miss is the time before the pain. 208
 * Please don't tell me you're trying to fly again. 213
 * I'm not used to making so many decision. I'm not used to so many changes. 215
 * I just want.. I want everything I lost. 215
 * I'll never fit in. If you're giving up, why shouldn't I? 216
 * If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance. 216
 * When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. 225
 * She hates being so close to the traffic. 229
 * We cross three lanes of cars and come to a thin strip of land covered with grass and tiny purple flowers. 231
 * We are in the middle of a sea of cars. 231
 * it looks like the parking lot at the mall. Only everyone is grouchy. 233
 * Is this a parade? 233
 * A woman and man in blue soldier clothes make their way through the know of cars. 233
 * It's hard to take my eyes off her gun. 234
 * She's going to be a new exhibit. 234
 * Who's going to pay to see this bag of bones? 235
 * We'll push and maybe you can pull. 235
 * this is definitely not part of my job description.. 236
 * I suppose we could give you an escort. 237
 * I feel like the President. 238
 * I was hoping for one a little less... geriatric. 241
 * You amaze me, cousin. 241
 * A sandstorm passes; the stars remain. 243
 * Hope is a thing made only for people, a scrap to hold onto in darkness and in light. 246
 * A voice comes, a voice like laughing water on my thirsty heart. 247
 * I'm speaking metaphorically, of course. 251
 * Someday, you will find yourself adrift in a place where you feel you don't belong, with people who don't understand who you are. 251
 * Let me help you find your way home. 251
 * We've reduced a grand idea to quotas and legalisms. 253
 * And as you walk together, perhaps you can share a story or two. 253
 * fiction, it's been said, makes immigrants of us all. 253
 * A good story well told is a compass in your pocket. 253