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The Day Of The Pelican (2009)

by Katherine Paterson(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0547181884 (ISBN13: 9780547181882)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Clarion Books

review 1: Being forced out of your home is hard enough, but imagine thinking that it was all your fault. Young student Meli Lleshi had a great life in Kosovo. She had a loving family, a comfortable place to live, and a best friend. In this thrilling story Meli must learn to adapt to her changing environment as her family began to journey towards safety in the midst of a terrible war. Throughout her family’s difficult journey, Meli must grow up and learn how to become a woman. While being chased out of their home by Serbian forces, the Lleshi family made it a priority to stay together. If they had not been so committed to this, this family might not have stayed alive. Near the end of the book there is a pleasant shift from a sad story of a suffering family to a new beginning for a... more needing family. When the Lleshis arrived in America, they not only had to adjust to a new environment, but to a new language as well. The kids had the easiest time learning to adapt to the new American culture. Meli and her brother joined their new school’s soccer teams where they learn about the struggles of being in high school.I really enjoyed this book because I could relate to Meli’s transition of schools and having to make new friends. This story perfectly dictated the struggles of accepting change and learning how to move on from a tough situation.
review 2: This was on display in the kids' section at the library and it was written by a very well-known and award-winning author of children's and young adult lit, so I gave it a whirl. The first half of the novel was pretty engaging--an iinteresting story of an Albanian/Kosavar family and its struggles as political refugees during the late 1990's. I like historical fiction. I never met an Albanian I didn't like. So I was into it. Then about half way thru the book the family gets sponsored to come to America and from there on the book took a nosedive as far as "interesting" goes. For one thing, the author decides to go into super warp speed and plows through two years of time just so she can get to her big climax, the now overly trite "9/11 Happens and Innocent U.S. Muslims Get Blamed" storyline. The protagonist and her teenage brother get beat up/picked on at school because they are Muslim. Insert here the "trying-to-teach-kids-a-positive-moral-lesson-trick" that just feels preachy and overwrought. In the end, a nice effort at creating positive social and political awareness in teenagers that just gets boring in the end. Paterson gets an "A" for trying. less

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