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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

When Meli Lleshi’s teenage brother is arrested and beaten without cause by the Serbian-run government in Kosovo, Meli’s parents decide to move out of the city and back to the family farm. But the Serbs continue their relentless campaign against the Albanian Kosovars, and soon the farm is no longer safe. The Lleshis flee their burning homestead—one family among thousands without safe haven. Katherine Paterson chronicles the rising Serbian government crackdown and ethnic cleansing of Albanian Kosovars through the experiences of the close-knit, extended Lleshi family in this novel rivetingly grounded in Meli’s perspective. The swift way her life changes, the struggles her family endures, and especially their fierce attempts to stick together are memorably revealed in a narrative pierced by small, affecting details and emotionally weighted moments. Meli and her immediate family eventual journey from a refugee camp to the United States. It marks a hopeful new beginning, but the events of 9/11 condemn them again in some people’s eyes because of their religion. A more definitive timeframe for this story set in the late 1990s, and a bit more introductory information, would have been helpful, but a lengthy author’s note fills in some gaps essential to understanding the political context of this affecting and important story. (Ages 10–14)

CCBC Choices 2010 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2010. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

September 7, 2009
In this powerful, finely crafted novel, Paterson unveils the experience of Muslim Albanians in the Kosovo war through her memorable heroine, Meli, who turns 11 just as her family flees genocide. Through Meli's gaze, Paterson skillfully defines the culture of Kosovo, including the strictly defined gender roles, large extended families and social hierarchy that pits Serb against Albanian and looks down on families, like Meli's, from the countryside. News of the murder of 70 members of an Albanian family and the brief disappearance of Meli's 13-year-old brother, Mehmet, drive her family into exile: first in a mountain camp, then as refugees in Macedonia (“They might die, but they would at least die together,” thinks Meli as her family is crammed into a crowded train) and finally to the United States. Lest readers feel distanced from the prejudice at the heart of this story, after 9/11, Meli and Mehmet endure taunting based on their heritage. Spanning vast distances and several years, Paterson offers a realistic and provocative account of these refugees' plight, balanced by the hope of new beginnings and the resilience of the human spirit. Ages 10–up.

From AudioFile Magazine

Tavia Gilbert gives an expert reading of Katherine Paterson's moving account of a family of Albanian Muslims during the Kosovo War. As the Serbs begin their brutal ethnic cleansing, Meli Lleshi and her family flee their home, enduring Serbian atrocities and the terror of being hunted like animals. They face the ravages of hunger and cold, and the fear of separation, as they make their way toward Macedonia and their inevitable relocation to a refugee camp. Gilbert's performance brings genuine pathos to the family's plight without resorting to melodrama. When they immigrate to America, Gilbert makes their struggles with language and culture poignant, and after the 9/11 attacks, she makes the prejudice they face utterly realistic. Paterson's brief historical endnote will assist young listeners' understanding. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine