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| purchase: $14.49 |
Breadwinner:
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11-year-old Parvana has rarely been outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets of Kabul, the heroine of Deborah Ellis's engrossing children's novel The Breadwinner is trapped inside her family's one-room home. That is, until the Taliban hauls away her father and Parvana realizes that it's up to her to become the "breadwinner" and disguise herself as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother. Set in the early years of the Taliban regime, this topical novel for middle readers explores the harsh realities of life for girls and women in modern-day Afghanistan. A political activist whose first book for children, Looking for X, dealt with poverty in Toronto, Ellis based The Breadwinner on the true-life stories of women in Afghan refugee camps. > In the wily Parvana, Ellis creates a character to whom North American children will have no difficulty relating. The daughter of university-educated parents, Parvana is thoroughly westernized in her outlook and responses. A pint-sized version of Offred from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Parvana conceals her critique of the repressive Muslim state behind the veil of her chador. Although the dialogue is occasionally stilted and the ending disappointingly sketchy, The Breadwinner is essential reading for any child curious about ordinary Afghans. Like so many books and movies on the subject, it is also eerily prophetic. "Maybe someone should drop a big bomb on the country and start again," says a friend of Parvana's. "'They've tried that,' Parvana said, 'It only made things worse.'" (Ages 9 to 12) --Lisa AlwardPrice: $14.49
Published by Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media on 2001-11.
Average rating (60 reviews):
|
 Rating: 9.0 |
Recent reviews:
Reviewed by anonymous on 2007-02-28: The Bread Winner
The Bread Winner is a five star book about a girl, named Parvana and her family. This book takes place (read more ...)
Rating: 10.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2007-02-18: The Breadwinner was a book that, once I started, I couldn't tear myself away from the pages. Ellis' character development of Parvana is so powerful. I felt as if I knew her. There were times when I wanted to hoist her (read more ...)
Rating: 8.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-11-30: I think that the book The breadwinner is a very facsinating story that covers alot of issues about war and injustice. Parvana is 11 years old and she has no freedom. She can't go outside since the Taliban has ordered that (read more ...)
Rating: 8.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-11-30: I think that the book The breadwinner is a very facsinating story that covers alot of issues about war and injustice. Parvana is 11 years old and she has no freedom. She can't go outside since the Taliban has ordered that (read more ...)
Rating: 8.0
Reviewed by anonymous on 2006-11-14: A young girl in Afghanistan must disguise herself as a boy in order to save her family from starvation when her father is arrested by the Taliban. There really isn't much of a story here, but more of a portrait of (read more ...)
Rating: 8.0
