One Boy from Kosovo

Marx, Trish

ISBN 10: 0688177336 ISBN 13: 9780688177331

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

When war drove twelve-year-old Edi and his family from their home in Kosovo, they fled across the Macedonian border to the Brazda refugee camp, a tent city that housed almost thirty thousand people. There the family shared a tent with more than twenty other people, with no kitchen, no running water, and no school for Edi to attend. Instead he helped out with the younger kids, played soccer with the other boys, and ran errands, such as waiting in the long lines for food and fresh water. Everybody was waiting in Brazda -- for news about relatives, for the war to end, for the day when they could finally go home again.

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2001, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council

About this title

About the Author

Trish Marx lives in New York City.

Cindy Karp lives in Coconut Grove, FL.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Marx and Karp document the life of ethnic Albanian Edi Fejzullahu, 12, and his family as they resided in a refugee camp in Macedonia. A brief introduction gives some background on the conflict in Kosovo, but includes erroneous statements such as, "Shortly before hostilities broke out, the new Yugoslavia had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-." Then readers are introduced to Edi and given a cursory view of his happy pre-refugee life. They learn that he went to school with Serbian children, but not how he was treated by them or what language they spoke. The remainder of the book focuses on the family's flight from their home in Gnjilane and details their stay in Brazda. The pluck and positive attitudes of the family are emphasized as they endured the monotony of life and chores while worrying about the fate of their relatives. Although the writing is clear, the narrative lacks immediacy. The full-color photos are sharp and often show the joy that a family can find even under dire circumstances, and this is important. However, the grim side of refugee life has to be surmised mainly from a few sad and stoic-looking faces. There is no sense of the spring mud or the summer dust and all of the photos are shot under sunny, blue skies. Nonetheless, the author and photographer are to be commended for bringing the topic to the attention of middle school students.
Elizabeth Talbot, University of Illinois, Champaign
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0688177336
• ISBN 13: 9780688177331
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 24
• Illustrator: Karp Cindy