Meli Lleshi is positive that her drawing of her teacher with his pelican nose started it all. The Lleshis are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country...
read full description
reviews
Oct 28, 2010
Megan
rated it: 
Combining Paterson's gift of writing and the tragic truth of the Serbian "cleansing" of Kosovo makes this book a must read. I highly recommend social studies teachers to incorporate this book into their curriculum for Eastern Europe studies. Of course, I always thought that history and geography would be more entertaining with narrative fiction. Anyway, it might take the low level readings a minute to get use to the names, but the story is action pack making it a quick read. I also
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 07, 2010
Jessie
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 12, 2009
Colleen
rated it:
This masterful tale of one girl's journey from childhood across a war-torn landscape easily stands with Paterson's body of work. Meli and her family are forced to flee their home- first to the mountains, then to a refugee camp in Macedonia, and finally to a small town in Vermont- in order to survive as Kosovo goes up in flames. Though the harsh realities of war are muted in the narrative, there are veiled references to rape, torture, and genocide that will be picked up by older readers. The s
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 23, 2009
Kathy
rated it:
Determined to stick together when war came to Kosovo in 1998, 11-year-old Meli Lleshi's family left their apartment over the store first to camp in the mountains, then to crowd into the family farmhouse before fleeing to the Macedonian refugee camp which they left for a new life in Vermont.
As she has done so often, Paterson creates such a sympathetic and realistic main character you can't hep but wanting to know her story. From the opening scene, when Meli's uncle arrives to tell the f More...
As she has done so often, Paterson creates such a sympathetic and realistic main character you can't hep but wanting to know her story. From the opening scene, when Meli's uncle arrives to tell the f More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 05, 2010
Josiah
rated it:
In 1999, author Katherine Paterson's church sponsored a family to come to America from war-torn Kosovo. One of the members of her church mentioned to Katherine Paterson the idea that she could write a book about a fictional Albanian Kosovar family and the circumstances that they would have faced in their turbulent country near the turn of the twentieth century. The result of this idea is The Day of the Pelican.
It's rare to find historical fiction written so soon after the events it More...
It's rare to find historical fiction written so soon after the events it More...
Jul 28, 2011
Adriane
rated it:
Katherine Paterson’s historical novel for young people portrays the tangled web of the Bosnian Kosovo/Serbia conflict of the early 1990’s, as seen through the eyes of a young Albanian Kosavar girl. Young Meli’s way of life is shattered as Serbians and Albanian freedom fighters wage acts of vengeance back and forth over the issue of independence for Kosovo. After Serb militia burn down her family’s home, her family joins the pilgrimage of displaced Albanians on a frozen cross-country flight to
More...
Aug 27, 2011
Ashley
rated it: 
Touching story about the dangerous journey of an Albanian family in Kosovo during the late 90's. Forced out of their home and mistreated by Serbian police the Lleshi family only had their strength of will and determination to stay together to survive nearly 2 years of abuse. Parts of the story were very disturbing and paralled that of the holocaust. It is nearly impossible to understand so much hate and the strength of it. The saddest part is that it will probably never end. Even in this fiction
More...
May 19, 2010
Shantay
rated it:
The Day of the Pelican
This is another book that mixes history with fiction. It reminds me of copper Sun. there are the oppressed and the oppressors again. Yet, the oppressed still make it to their “promised land,” somehow they overcome through it all---pain, suffering, degrading, ridicule. The day of the Pelican is another story, a historical fiction story, of suffrage to victory and hope. I like how in chapter 11 on page 95, it reads “AT last came the news they had almost More...
This is another book that mixes history with fiction. It reminds me of copper Sun. there are the oppressed and the oppressors again. Yet, the oppressed still make it to their “promised land,” somehow they overcome through it all---pain, suffering, degrading, ridicule. The day of the Pelican is another story, a historical fiction story, of suffrage to victory and hope. I like how in chapter 11 on page 95, it reads “AT last came the news they had almost More...
Dec 29, 2011
Handd51
rated it:
There is a whole genre of books like Ann Frank - this joins them, except it is fiction - and Katherine Paterson has done it again. Meli is an Albanian living in Kosovo as the civil war of 1998-1999 overtook her comfortable life. She and her family escaped to a mountain camp, living in tents even as the snow fell and trying to keep her brother from joining the KLA. The book is appropriate for middle school readers, even tho they'll have no memory of the war itself. Paterson writes from her ex
More...
May 10, 2010
Erin
rated it:
A book inspired by the true story of a refugee family from Kosovo that came to Paterson’s Vermont town. This family inspired her to write a touching and informative novel based on their experiences fleeing to safety.
This book’s title is very inspiring as that it demonstrates how quickly in life things change and how one small mistake can take you down an unexpected journey. This story begins as the main character, Meli draws a silly picture of her teacher and gets in trouble for giggli More...
This book’s title is very inspiring as that it demonstrates how quickly in life things change and how one small mistake can take you down an unexpected journey. This story begins as the main character, Meli draws a silly picture of her teacher and gets in trouble for giggli More...
3 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 01, 2009
Roxanne Hsu
rated it:
I wanted to put it on the shelf of "Historical Fiction" and then realized that, hmm... it is really a book of more or less current events in the world that the young readers are still living. 9/11 happened when the current 5th graders were 2 or 3. So, the "historical" part is recent, so recent that I wonder how we can best discuss the story with young readers.
Paterson did a fabulous job turning such complex political and national picture into something easy to u More...
Paterson did a fabulous job turning such complex political and national picture into something easy to u More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 05, 2011
Erin
rated it:
The Day of the Pelican
by Katherine Paterson
After the Holocaust the world said, “never again will people be slaughtered because they are different.” That's never happened since, right? I wish that was a fact, but it's not. Every decade it's revealed that human beings kill other human beings because of their race, religion, tribal membership, who knows why? We still do this. In fact, thousands of Albanian Muslims fled Kosovo as recently as 1998 (you were alive then!) because Serbian C More...
by Katherine Paterson
After the Holocaust the world said, “never again will people be slaughtered because they are different.” That's never happened since, right? I wish that was a fact, but it's not. Every decade it's revealed that human beings kill other human beings because of their race, religion, tribal membership, who knows why? We still do this. In fact, thousands of Albanian Muslims fled Kosovo as recently as 1998 (you were alive then!) because Serbian C More...
May 20, 2010
Bob
rated it:
The Day of the Pelican by Katherin Paterson, offers a fictional but accurate account of the events that transpired in Kosovo in the late 1990's. The story follows Meli, an Albanian Muslim, and her family as they face Serbian oppression in Kosovo. everything seemed to be going alirght for her family, until Meli drew a seemingly harmless characature of her teacher. From that point on everything went wrong. She and her family became homeless refugees and eventually made theirway tothe United States
More...
Oct 08, 2009
Kate
rated it:
Katherine Paterson's THE DAY OF THE PELICAN lends a human face to the 1998-1999 unrest in the former Yugoslavia. Meli and her family are Albanians persecuted by the Serbs under the reign of Milosevic and forced to flee for their lives, leaving everything they've known except for one another. Their journey is a perilous one with twists, turns, and hardships that will have young readers holding their breath. Even when the family seems to be starting a new life in a safer place, new challenges aris
More...
Feb 22, 2011
Gregg
rated it:
This is another novel of war told from the perspective of a child, this time in the late 1990's in Kosovo. Thirteen-year-old Meli is the oldest daughter of an Albanian Kosovar family who must flee their Serbian aggressors. They lose their home, their business, family and friends. After much suffering they end up in a refugee camp and eventually emigrate to begin a new life in America. Their new homeland presents challenges, sufferings, and prejudices of its own. The story was inspired by th
More...
Nov 07, 2010
Beverly
rated it:
It’s Battle of the Books Friday. This book, The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson is not on the current list, but has been recommended for the 2011-2012 school year.
Description: Meli Lleshi is convinced that her drawing of a pelican resembling her teacher started it all. Meli’s family are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors. On the day of the pelican, Meli’s brother Mehmet is abducted by the Serbian police, mistreated and dumped in the wi More...
Description: Meli Lleshi is convinced that her drawing of a pelican resembling her teacher started it all. Meli’s family are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors. On the day of the pelican, Meli’s brother Mehmet is abducted by the Serbian police, mistreated and dumped in the wi More...
Aug 21, 2011
Julie
rated it:
Even though I was in high school/college and studying European history during the conflicts in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Kosovo in the 1990s, I knew very little of what happened there beyond the facts of a genocide (mass killing of people based on their race or ethnicity) and the U.S. and NATO airstrikes. This book brought a sad episode in history to life. There is no better way to learn history than a first person account, fictional or real, yet the book feels like the story of Meli and he
More...
Mar 13, 2010
Rosalie
rated it:
This is the story of a family Albanians living in Kosovo who have are being persecuted by the Serbians and forced brutally from their home in 1999. Suddenly they become homeless refuges forced to live in a tent in the mountains. They survive the ethnic cleansing attempts that the Serbs submit to these people. Finally a church sponsors this family and they end up in Vermont. But their persecution doesn't stop there. This book really opened my eyes up to the plight of the refuges living in thi
More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 17, 2010
Willie
rated it: 
A young reader faces several challenges when picking up this book.
To begin with, the worst, most difficult writing is in the first few pages. Paterson faces the challenge of introducing the reader to a different culture and way of life, and she doesn't handle it gracefully. The writing is often overwrought and complicated. There are too many unfamiliar names, both of people and of things, right off the bat. She finds her rhythm when she is able to write about things happening, but I More...
To begin with, the worst, most difficult writing is in the first few pages. Paterson faces the challenge of introducing the reader to a different culture and way of life, and she doesn't handle it gracefully. The writing is often overwrought and complicated. There are too many unfamiliar names, both of people and of things, right off the bat. She finds her rhythm when she is able to write about things happening, but I More...
Jun 01, 2011
Tami
rated it:
This gave me a whole new perspective on what it is like to be a refugee of war from another country. This is written from the perspective of a little girl whose family is dealing with the war in between the Serbians and Albanians in Kosovo. Very sad, but hopeful story line. It is based on a true story. It was written about the events that really did happen to a family who the author knows. This book shows the ugly things that happened in Kosovo during the war and in America during 9/11.
More...
More...
Nov 11, 2009
Emily
rated it:
Enh. Fine, but light years from Paterson at her Great-Gilly-Hopkins best. Someone at her church suggested she write a book about the plight of an Albanian family living in Kosovo in 1998, and that's what this feels like: a book someone in your church suggested you write because they knew you were a writer. If you're in children's library services and feel the need to read the new Paterson out of a sense of duty (and/or interest & excitement), I'm here to say: you don't, or you can at least bump
More...
May 11, 2010
Al_anna
rated it:
I liked that this novel tells a very personal story about an ethnic war that a very small percentage of the American population is familiar with. While most would think of the Holocaust when considering global atrocities, the Kosovo War is relatable in many ways.
While the story is an important one to read about, especially from the perspective of an Albanian Kosovar, and a child no less, I had difficulty seeing this as a true YA novel. The main character, Meli, never goes off on More...
While the story is an important one to read about, especially from the perspective of an Albanian Kosovar, and a child no less, I had difficulty seeing this as a true YA novel. The main character, Meli, never goes off on More...
Oct 25, 2010
Heather
rated it:
Katherine Paterson has always been able to make me cry. This book was no exception. Meli's family lives in Kosovo. They are also Albanian and are persecuted by the Serbs. They are forced from their home, from a hidden camp in the mountains, to a refugee camp. The family makes it to America where everything is supposed to be better. Then comes 9/11 and Meli and her family find themselves again mistreated for being Muslim.
A very serious subject that has been portrayed in a person More...
A very serious subject that has been portrayed in a person More...
Jul 20, 2010
The Reading Countess
rated it:
"Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party." Herbert Hoover
It killed me to leave this book off in Chicago as part of the summer Recycle Your Reads program (I am leaving children's books off during our summer vacation with a note to pass it along to another reader when completed). This is a beautiful and relevant story about the struggle in Yugoslovia with Milosovec at the helm. The compelling story about a family on the run told through the eyes of young Meli, a More...
It killed me to leave this book off in Chicago as part of the summer Recycle Your Reads program (I am leaving children's books off during our summer vacation with a note to pass it along to another reader when completed). This is a beautiful and relevant story about the struggle in Yugoslovia with Milosovec at the helm. The compelling story about a family on the run told through the eyes of young Meli, a More...
Nov 07, 2010
Renee
rated it:
3.75 Meli Lleshi and her family are Albanians living in Kosovo when violence breaks out. Her family leaves their home and in a journey fraught with trouble, they end up in a refugee camp. Eventually, a church in Vermont sponsors Meli’s family and brings them to the U.S. Meli and her family struggle to make a new home in a foreign country and their struggle is made more difficult after September 11th. Paterson includes a helpful historical note on Kosovo. She was inspired to write this story afte
More...
Sep 07, 2011
Jill
rated it:
I really appreciate it when ad-lit authors take time to educate their readers. This was a really great way to convey some of what's going on/went on in Serbia/Croatia/Kosovo. I also really appreciated the note to the reader at the end of the book explaining that this is one point of view of the events. In any case, it's a great way to open young readers' eyes to the world around them, to get them interested, and to help them avoid blanket hatred. A quick read with a good scope. I would have
More...
Jun 22, 2010
Paula
rated it:
The reading level and length of this novel lends itself to middle school, yet the plot narrates the tragedy of an Albanian Kosovar family who survive the ethnic cleansing of 1998-1999. Its value as historical fiction extends well beyond middle school.
One branch of the family immigrates to Vermont a year ahead of 9/11. The novel ends after showing how the family perseveres through the scrutiny they receive as Muslims after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The novel's strengths a More...
One branch of the family immigrates to Vermont a year ahead of 9/11. The novel ends after showing how the family perseveres through the scrutiny they receive as Muslims after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The novel's strengths a More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 15, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
I learned a lot about the plight of the Albanian people in Kosovo and the complicated history of that area of the world by reading about the Lleshi family. Their escape from Kosovo, time in a refugee camp, and experience coming to America is vividly told. The "Historical Note" in the back helped me finally get a grip on the basics of the history of Yugoslavia, which after 1963 consisted of 6 socialist republics: Bosnia & Herzegovia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia
More...
Dec 27, 2009
Jamie
rated it:
I think I liked this book mostly because this is the area of world history that has most fascinated and compelled me for a long time, and I think Paterson mostly gets it.
As usual, her writing is impeccable.
What I didn't like about this book were the facts thrown in as "plot" , which is what I never like about historical fiction - Mehmet hears the KLA radio, and then tells what the Americans are going to do to the rest of the famiy, for example. Also, after they More...
As usual, her writing is impeccable.
What I didn't like about this book were the facts thrown in as "plot" , which is what I never like about historical fiction - Mehmet hears the KLA radio, and then tells what the Americans are going to do to the rest of the famiy, for example. Also, after they More...
Jan 19, 2012
Shaeley
rated it:
Meli's family (Albanian) lives in Kosovo during the late 1990's when unrest leads to war. After moving around a bit, they go to a Macedonian refugee camp where they apply to immigrate to the U.S.
There are sections of the book I would use for a read-aloud in my class including the description of high school classes for Meli and her brother, Mehmet, who are still learning English when they arrive in Vermont. Another great section to read aloud would be where the younger children explai More...
There are sections of the book I would use for a read-aloud in my class including the description of high school classes for Meli and her brother, Mehmet, who are still learning English when they arrive in Vermont. Another great section to read aloud would be where the younger children explai More...
