for: Middle and Upper gradesClarion (H/M), 2009
$16.00
146 pages
Rating: Incredibly mixed: I loved learning more about the plight of Albanians in Kosovo, there's so little we really know and understand. Some of the storytelling was terrific, but there were places where I know that kids will just put the book aside. And some of the storytelling was just that - a narrator telling a story. I was profoundly moved by the plight of this family. I do love Katherine Paterson's writing. This didn't seem like her extraordinary writing though. It was more....ordinary. I feel guilty and mean saying this about a powerful author. But it's the feeling I'm left with....
Meli's family goes through unbelievable cruelties in the three years between living a comfortable life in their home in Kosovo, then taking very few belongings and fleeing to a remote mountain KLA hideaway, then to live in a tiny farmhouse with uncle, aunt, elderly granny, cousin and her three kids (14 of them in all, I think), to trudge for days without food or water to be thrust into a freight car, dumped on the Macedonia border and put into a refugee camp....to traveling to Vermont to a new life. Horrible injustices. So much hate. And killing. Cruelty. Subhumanity. And this is going on in many places in the world RIGHT NOW! The story ends shortly after 9/11, which is another huge blow to this non-practicing Muslim family.
When we look around and see immigrants, we must realize how much they've left behind to be here. Huge pieces of themselves left behind. Family and friends that will never been seen again. I'm almost speechless with sadness. What can I do to help?
Here's another review, from Twenty by Jenny. It includes an interview with Katherine Paterson and her editor about the writing of the book. Quite interesting.
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