Mead, Alice. Girl of Kosovo.

Random House, Dell, Yearling. 113p. c2001. 0-440-41853-4. $4.99. J

How quickly the world's attention moves on ... a few years ago we were focused on the plight of the Albanians in Kosovo. Yet, stories of children in war zones are horrific wherever war is happening: there is a universal quality to the suffering of children. Mead writes about Zana, a young Moslem girl from a village in Kosovo who sees her father and brothers killed by the Serbs. She is wounded in the attack, with painful shrapnel in her hip, but worse, serious injury to a foot. Her mother goes into a serious depression with these deaths, even when she gives birth to a new son; she is incapable of giving Zana the attention she needs. Kindly medical personnel arrange for Zana to travel to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, for a necessary operation. After months there, separated from all she knows, she returns to the village, still recuperating. A volunteer medical worker from Great Britain obtains the crucial antibiotics for Zana when an infection sets in, and his kindness gives them all some hope. As the book ends, the NATO troops are driving out the Serbs, but in the chaos Zana and her family are threatened once again. Zana appeals to her friend Lena, a Serbian girl who lives in the same village, and Lena and her family do help their Moslem neighbors before they themselves have to leave.

Zana is just about 12 years old, but this works for younger YAs, and perhaps even for older ones who wonder how children feel who are trapped in wars. Zana understands the political issues, the oppression, and the reasons to fight; but because she is a child who needs the love of her parents and the stability of a family life and village friendships, her suffering is even more intense. Mead is excellent at writing about children in crisis-see also the review of her recent hardcover book. Year of No Rain, in this issue of KLIATT.