Adem's Cross (Laurel Leaf Books) [Mass Market Paperback]

Alice Mead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1998 | Age Level: 10 and up | Series: Laurel Leaf Books

Fourteen-year old Adem, an Albanian boy, lives in Serb-occupied Kosovo. Adem hates existing in a constant state of terror. Every week, friends and family are beaten, teargassed, and killed. The Albanians are helpless, and even passive resistance can get you killed--as is Adem's sister Fatmira, gunned down while reading a protest poem. Now Adem must decide how to survive this never-ending nightmare--with or without his family.

Mead's novel includes a brief history of the events leading to the Kosovo Conflict, a map of the region surrounding Kosovo, and a pronunciation guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1993 in a former Yugoslavian province, this drama examines the plight of ethnic Albanians in Serb-occupied Kovoso when one Albanian boy defies authority. "While the graphic depictions of violence invite sympathy for the Albanians, the message of this riveting novel carries a wider meaning," said PW. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-The author of Junebug (Farrar, 1995) leaves the drug-infested projects for an even more harrowing setting: Kosovo, Yugoslavia. Fourteen-year-old Adem, an Albanian, tries to survive despite the day-to-day random violence and cruelty of the Serbians. American youngsters may have trouble imagining a school without chairs, books, or heat. They will have trouble visualizing that school's annual first day tradition: tear gas and beating up the principal. In this republic, Albanian children are not allowed to play organized sports. Personal freedom is an even more valuable commodity than nonexistent gasoline. When Adem's beloved older sister attempts to make a stand, she is cut down by Serbian bullets, and Adem is consumed by secret guilt that he might have prevented her death. His home life spirals down quickly as his family is crushed by the opposition. After Adem is mutilated by Serbian soldiers, he escapes, aided by a Serb and a gypsy, who is killed during the flight. Mead preps readers with a quick, efficient sketch of Yugoslavia's recent history before jumping into this disturbing society. She is not taking a political stance. She passionately defends children caught in cultural crossfire. One inconsistency is puzzling. Twice Adem mentions that Fatmira had spoken out and read her peace poem, but the text states that she was shot while waiting to read it. Setting that quibble aside, this book takes a distant and brutal conflict and makes it real. Recommend it to fans of Frances Temple and Suzanne Staples.
Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (April 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440227356
• ISBN-13: 978-0440227359
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,624,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I had an unusually healthy childhood-sailing across the ocean on a steamship at age 7, visiting England,Scotland, and Norway, and playing endlessly with my dollhouse, which perhaps eventually lead to writing many books for children. Because I live in a refugee resettlement city Portland, ME, I wrote about displaced kids from war areas, Sudan, Kurdistan, and Kosovo. I was also an art teacher. The book, Soldier Mom, now 20 years old, was written during the first Gulf War, when we suddenly used a "reserve" army instead of an enlisted one. I had two active sons, dogs, rabbit, chameleon, hamster and later assisted 40 Kosova high school students. I loved gardening, painting, reading. But suddenly began to hurt everywhere, falling, weak. Nothing helped.I had to leave my job as an art teacher but was still able to write.
Nearly twenty years (plus a bout with severe cancer) into feeling weak, I now know I have Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disease that affects your eyes, breathing, endurance and speech.
I still write, paint, sing, practice my standup comedy, and take photographs. Really nothing inside me has changed at all. I fight to improve, laugh over the silliness of ordinary life, and am curious about all sorts of things.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, January 22, 2001

By 

Kosovar (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adem's Cross (Laurel Leaf Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

Believe me,this book is so beautifully written.As a Kosovar I've found it amazing how Alice could make such a great story which in fact most of it or perhaps all of it is true because these sort of things hapenned very often in Kosova. I would highly recommend this book to all of you - no matter what age you are...Well done Alice and Keep Writing as your books will always have a spare place on my library...The best of luck

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book... wish she writes for adults!, October 26, 2009

By 

Ilir Hoxha "zucchero001" (Hanover, NH, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adem's Cross (Paperback)

This is very good book... I wish she writes for adults... I prefer it to any kid in the world....

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Adem's Cross, April 17, 2000

By 

James Koo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adem's Cross (Hardcover)

The author has traveled to Kosova/Kosovo, both before and after the NATO airstrikes there, and is currently active in attempts to release Kosovar Albanian prisoners held by the government in Belgrade. In Adem's Cross, the author attempts to depict rural life in Kosova/Kosovo during Serb rule, from the perspective of a Kosovar Albanian teenager, Adem(Adam). The humanity of individual Serbs and Roma(Gypsies), the ineffectiveness of several policies of the Democratic League of Kosova(LDK), the depictions of the city of Prizren and the nearby border with Albania, the views of Kosovar Albanians toward the then raging war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and the prediction of future intervention over Kosova/Kosovo by the United States, make this book unique, in that it was published before the open emergence of organized armed resistance in Kosova/Kosovo, let alone the start of involvement by NATO.