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. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

PW called this story about the Kosovo crisis "powerful and hard-hitting"; it focuses on an Albanian family ravaged by war. Ages 10-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

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, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

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 From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.