The Day of the Pelican

Author: Katherine Paterson

Main Characters: Meli, Mehmet, Baba and Mama Lleshi, Uncle Fadil

This book is about a Albanian family from Kosovo who must go through a very difficult set of trials.  The setting begins in Kosovo in 1998 and continues through until Vermont, USA in 2001.  Meli is twelve at the beginning of the book, and is the main character that tells the story.  There are five children: Meli, her brother Mehmet, and her younger sister and two brothers.  They persisted from being chased out of their family apartment to live in a camp in the mountains.  They then moved to be with an uncle's family at his farm.  In the middle of the night, the family must flee after being robbed to walking miles with no food or water.  It was a hard journey, only to be rounded up and placed in a box car on a train to be sent out of the country...only Macedonia didn't want them.  They eventually end up in a refugee camp until the NATO forces win over Serbian forces.  The uncle and his family are allowed to return to the apartment once owned by Meli's parents, while the Lleshi's wait to get passage to America.  One can only imagine the pain and hardship that this family endures to make it this far.  Story culminates in a small town in Vermont where the Lleshis eventually settle.  They work hard and make a life for themselves.  And then Septermber 11th happens.  As if this family had not been through enough already!

I am so happy that I was able to read this book.  It really touched my heart.

I have changed focus in my classroom to teaching 6th grade Social Studies, so much of the reading I will be doing will be targeted to World Geography.