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Bibliothèque | Type de document | Numéro de cote topographique | Nombre d'enregistrements enfants | Emplacement | Statut | Réservations du document |
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Recherche en cours... Science | Juvenile Book | JUV PZ7 .M47887 G5 2001 | 1 | Juvenile Collection | Recherche en cours... Inconnu | Recherche en cours... Indisponible |
Recherche en cours... South | Juvenile Book | J FIC MEAD | 1 | Juvenile Fiction | Recherche en cours... Inconnu | Recherche en cours... Indisponible |
Recherche en cours... South | Book | J MEAD | 1 | Juvenile Fiction | Recherche en cours... Inconnu | Recherche en cours... Indisponible |
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Résumé
Résumé
A child's perspective on war.
In 1998 the Serb military intensifies its efforts to expel Albanians from Kosovo. Ethnic cleansing forces many families to seek safety in the surrounding hills and mountains. The Kosovo Liberation Army fights back guerrilla style, struggling for an independent Kosovo. Some Albanian villagers support the freedom fighters. Others fear that armed resistance, which they have successfully avoided through long years of Serb repression, will only increase the death toll. And always there is terrible tension between Serbian and Albanian neighbors who once were friends. Eleven-year-old Zana Dugolli, an Albanian Kosovar, isn't sure what to think. She does know not to speak her language to Serbs. And every day she worries about her mother and father, her brothers, the farm, the apple orchard. Already she has lost her best friend, a Serb. Then Zana's village is shelled, and her worst nightmare is realized. Her father and two brothers are killed in the attack, and her leg is shattered by shrapnel. Alone in a Serb hospital, she remembers her father's words: "Don't let them fill your heart with hate."
Based on a true story, Alice Mead's stark, affecting novel about a place and conflict she knows well will help young readers understand the war in Kosovo.
Critiques (5)
Critique du Publishers Weekly
As in her Adem's Cross, Mead places a human face on the Kosovo crisis by focusing on an Albanian family ravaged by war. Even after her father and brothers are killed and her leg is gravely injured in a Serb attack, 11-year-old Zana, the narrator, struggles to heed her father's advice: "Don't let them fill your heart with hate. Whatever happens." Zana's friendship with a Serbian girl, Lena, and her trip behind enemy lines to a hospital in Belgrade provide Zana with evidence of kindness to weigh against the brutality in the Serb faction, while her cowardly KLA uncle Vizar illuminates weaknesses among the Albanians. Mead puts the war into a context that young readers will understand. The family watches sports on ESPN and Zana's brother plays Nintendo; at the same time, they bury guns and food and sleep in their clothes, poised to retreat. Through Zana, the author stresses the random cruelty of the war in Kosovo, and her anger stretches to include foreign journalists: "How was it that foreigners could come take pictures of us when we were dead, but couldn't come to help us stay alive? I wanted to let the air out of their fancy tires so they would be stuck here, trapped the way we were." The ending is a little convenient (Zana helps save Lena's family from the vengeful hatred of their Albanian neighbors), but most readers will find the story powerful and hard-hitting. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Critique de Horn Book
In the spring of 1998, the life of eleven-year-old Zana, an Albanian Kosovar, is shattered when Serb militiamen murder her father and brothers. Injured herself, Zana learns to follow her father's wish: that she not let the Serb military fill [her] heart with hate. Mead writes lucidly and honestly about a child of war. An introduction provides historical context. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Critique de Booklist
Gr. 5^-10. Based on the experience of one Albanian family caught up in the ethnic wars in Kosovo, this moving novel tells the story through the eyes of a young girl, Zana Dugolli, 11, who sees her father and two of her brothers killed in an attack on her village. Her foot is smashed, and she spends months alone in the hospital, shocked and depressed. When she returns home, she sees killers round up people in her schoolyard. Her enraged older brother joins the terrorist underground, but Zana hears her father`s voice in her head: "Don't let them fill your heart with hate." There's no exploitation of the brutality, but the facts are devastating. Mead provides a historical introduction about the conflict as well as an afterword about her own 1999 visits to refugee camps. But readers will see that Zana can't make out the politics--she doesn't care about Serbs or Albanians or NATO. She knows that in war everyone becomes an enemy. The power in the story is the personal drama, especially Zana's enduring bond with her Serbian best friend and neighbor. There's much to talk about. Add this to the Holocaust curriculum. --Hazel Rochman
Critique de School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-Eleven-year-old Zana Dugolli is an Albanian girl whose rural Kosovo village is beset by the ethnic wars of the late 1990s. Zana witnesses the brutal and senseless death of two of her brothers and her peace-loving father. In the same attack, Zana's leg is badly injured, leading to an uncomfortable stay at a Belgrade hospital staffed in part by some hostile Serbians. Upon her return home, Zana finds the remnants of her village and family, torn apart by grief and rage at their treatment by the Serbs and their campaign of ethnic cleansing. Zana strives to remember her father's exhortation not to allow anyone to fill her heart with hate and is ultimately able to maintain her friendship with a local Serbian girl. Julie Dretzin has a youthful sounding voice as she ably narrates this first person tale by Alice Mead (Farrar, 2001). Voice breaking as she describes the incomprehensible actions of hate that cause so many members of Zana's family to die, Dretzin uses the perfect amount of expression. Her matter-of-fact tone enhances the author's portrayal of the terrible effects of war upon innocent people. This is a powerful and painful tale that should lead to a greater understanding of some difficult concepts-B. Allison Gray, South Country Library, Bellport, NY(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Critique de Kirkus
As in her novel Adems Cross (1996), Mead portrays the horrors of the Balkan conflict, this time through the eyes of a young Albanian girl. There has always been the presence of the Serbian army in Zanas world, but in her 11th year, the real trouble begins. A neighboring farm is destroyed and the family massacredand that is only the beginning. Shortly thereafter, there is a bombing and Zanas two youngest brothers and father are killed. Zana herself is badly wounded from the shrapnel, especially in her ankle and hip. The tale follows her through several hospitals, alone and terrified. She is finally united with her family, but the tragedy has left her mother with few coping skills. Inadequate medical care, sporadic visits from an English doctor who has befriended her, and little hope of recovery contribute to Zanas despondency. But when the village is destroyed and her neighbors threaten to attack Zanas good friend, who is Serbian, Zana finds the courage to defend her and stand against the vicious crowd. Her fathers words Dont let them fill your heart with hate come back to her and she realizes that she has friends who are considered enemies. In an afterword, the author indicates that the story is based on a family she met when she visited the refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia; the forward gives a short history of the area and sets the scene. This difficult tale will give readers a sense of the sufferings of war and the emotional struggle needed to survive against a totalitarian state. (Fiction. 10-14)