A review by abigailbat
The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson
3.0
Meli and her family are forced to leave their Kosovo home after the Serbs begin a program of ethnic cleansing to rid the area of Muslims.
While I think it's great to have a story told from the point of view of a Kosovar refugee, the execution was somewhat lacking, in my opinion. Parts of the story were very exciting, but parts of it dragged. The novel sprawled, which is quite a feat for such a short book. While it might be useful in social studies classes, I can't see kids picking this one up and sticking with it. Hand them Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic or Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate for war/refugee stories with more kid appeal.
The story didn't do much for me, but the narration was good! Tavia Gilbert did a good job with accents and voices. I enjoyed her performance and it elevated this ho-hum novel for me.
While I think it's great to have a story told from the point of view of a Kosovar refugee, the execution was somewhat lacking, in my opinion. Parts of the story were very exciting, but parts of it dragged. The novel sprawled, which is quite a feat for such a short book. While it might be useful in social studies classes, I can't see kids picking this one up and sticking with it. Hand them Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic or Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate for war/refugee stories with more kid appeal.
The story didn't do much for me, but the narration was good! Tavia Gilbert did a good job with accents and voices. I enjoyed her performance and it elevated this ho-hum novel for me.