Often in literature authors work on trying to create the best character that connects to you which is called a mirror, and characters that are different which is called a window. A book that has a good mix of mostly windows, but some mirrors is Home of The Brave by Kathrine Applegate. Her character Kek does that well. Kek is a kid from Sudan but due to war in his village, he is a refugee seeking safety in America. But he is alone. His mom is missing, and the rest of this family is killed. One window for me is that he has lived in a refugee camp.
Living in a refugee camp is very difficult because of certain struggles. One of the many struggles is not being able to have family to at least somewhat comfort him during those rough, and hectic days. That is a window for me because I have never lived a single day without family, and I have also never even been close to a warzone. Also, that is important because just to get to the refugee camp he had to make a treacherous journey, where they were constantly being chased by soldiers. This must have been really hard for Kek as having no family, in a horrible place, while being chased by soldiers almost all the time is obviously awful.
Learning a new language is hard for people as it is not something they are used to. One thing Kek had to do was learn English with almost no teachers constantly teaching. That is a window because even though English is also my second language, I had teachers and constant help to learn the language, and I was a lot younger (three to four years old). Also, just learning a new language by itself is hard, but not being able to constantly learn is even worse. This must have been super hard for Kek because trying a new language without being able to communicate with anyone except two people is hard, but only having two people who are also not experts on the language, and only being able to talk to them is extra hard.
The most important thing I learned from Kek’s story is that you should never judge a book by their cover. Literally. Just because this book has a little boy in a corner and a cow in the other doesn’t mean it is a bad book. If anything this was one of the best books I have ever read, and one of the best character wise. I also realized just how hard being a refugee, or relocating to a new country is super hard. I just want you to know that if you see a bad book cover, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. Take that for books and real life. If you do want to read the book I highly recommend it and I think you will enjoy it!