Grade Level: 4-6 Age Level: 9-11 Listening Level: Grades 4-6
Meli Lleshi is positive that her drawing of her teacher with his pelican nose is what started it all. The Lleshis are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors. Suddenly, they are homeless refugees. As they travel the dangerous roads at night and leave burning farms and houses behind, young and old alike find their courage and resilience constantly tested. It is humiliating to have to live in crowded tent cities with hundreds of other displaced persons. If it weren't for Mama and Baba's efforts to keep the family together, who knows what would happen to them? Then one day Baba makes a surprise announcement: they will all soon be going to a country far away. It will be a great adventure, he assures the family. There will be no more running from an enemy, and no turning back to their old way of life. But will they really find freedom at last? Meli wonders.
Katherine Paterson's international fame rests not only on her widely acclaimed novels but also on her efforts to promote literacy in the U.S. and abroad. A two-time winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award (The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Master Puppeteer), she was the 1998 recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and was given the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts by her home state of Vermont. She lives in Barre. Her most recent novel for Clarion was Bread and Roses, Too. She is also the recipient of the 2006 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which celebrates her life's work.
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