The Day Of The Pelican

The Day Of The Pelican

Juvenile fiction
In 1999 Katherine Paterson's Vermont church sponsored a refugee
family from Kosovo. She got to know them and wrote a newspaper series
and then a juvenile novel about a fictional family undergoing their
experiences. The Day Of The Pelican is a powerful and poignant
glimpse at the terrible cost of civil war.
It's almost spring when Meli's world begins to fall to pieces.
Her aunt and uncle arrive unexpectedly. They bring terrible news.
"'Seventy people.' It was Mehmet who broke the silence. 'Adam
Jashari and his family. Those Serb butchers just went in and
slaughtered them all.'"
One day Meli has to stay after school. When she can go home her
older brother, Mehmet, isn't waiting for her. But he hasn't returned
home. Her father goes out to search for him. Her mother tells Meli
not to worry.
"How could Meli not worry? Her family lived in a country where
people were known to disappear without a trace. Men mostly--men who
were suspected of Kosovo Liberation Army connections. But for all his
posturing, Mehmet was only a boy. He wasn't part of the KLA. Surely
not even a Serb policeman would think...But who knows what those
people thought?"
Weeks later Mehmet returns with a tale of being beaten and left
for dead. KLA people nursed him back to health. The family realizes
that their home is no longer safe. Their journey will take them to a
primitive mountainside encampment, a refugee camp, and then...
...half way around the world to a very strange place.
Grab your literary passport and get ready to travel with them.
On a personal note, and now we're doing our best to keep people in
dire danger out! We disgrace the statue of liberty.
A great big shout out goes out to all who strive to get refugees to
safety.
jules hathaway



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