The Breadwinner (The Breadwinner collection)

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As she travels, Parvana finds friends — a starving, orphaned baby; a strange, hostile boy; a solitary girl who darts in and out of the minefields to find food. In Kabul, 15-year-old Damsa runs away to avoid being forced into marriage by her family. She is found by a police officer named Shauzia, who takes her to Green Valley, a shelter and school for women and girls run by Parvana. The book starts with Parvana and Father at the marketplace, where they are selling some of their household items. They decide to end the day and head home, where Mother and Nooria are cleaning. After dinner that night the Taliban bursts into the house and arrests Father for his diploma that he earned overseas.

Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak by Deborah Ellis collects 20 heart-wrenching interviews with children, from her travels through Israel and Palestine in the winter of 2002. After Continue reading » Sequel to The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis follows the eponymous 12-year-old girl who, disguised as a boy, sets off from Kabul in search of her missing mother and siblings in Continue reading » Mrs. Weera: A former teacher and women's rights activist; she's also Mother's friend. She has lost her whole family to the war except her granddaughter. Mrs. Weera is a women's rights activist and former gym teacher who is a friend of Parvana's family and is a welcome presence in the household. She believes that people have a responsibility to care for their families, even if it means sacrifices must be made.

A dominating theme throughout the story is gender relations. The restrictions placed on women under Taliban rule made the distance between men's and women's roles even greater than it had been previously. While Father and Mother are more progressive in their politics, these changes don't affect their relationship much, but many other families saw dramatic changes as husbands began to lean into these restrictive policies. In most cases, women were forced to find more subtle ways of embracing their power and agency, even if it meant subverting the system. The next morning, Mother and Parvana set off for the prison. As they walk, Mother shows people a photo of Father. At the prison, Parvana remembers Malali and helps her mother yell at the soldiers. They beat Mother until Parvana agrees to go. When they get home, Parvana realizes that Mother’s feet are bleeding—she hasn’t been out since the Taliban arrived. Nooria tends to Mother while Maryam washes Parvana’s blistered feet. Mother cries and lies on a toshak for days. The food runs out, and since Parvana and Nooria are too afraid to fetch water, they stop washing Ali’s diapers. On the fourth day, Nooria tells Parvana to buy food in the market.

Imagine living in a country in which women and girls are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go out. Her mother and Mrs. Weera decide to disguise Parvana as a boy by cutting her hair and dressing her in her deceased brother Hossain's old clothes so that she can buy groceries. She also continues her father's business of reading and writing letters for illiterate people. Parvana runs into a girl who she used to go to school with named Shauzia. They start a business partnership. Although they were never close in school, they bond trying to figure out ways to earn more money. They come up with an idea of a portable "shop" by using trays to move their wares around. However, they must first obtain money to buy trays. They find a way to earn money by digging up bones from graves.Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact). Ellis (the Breadwinner Trilogy) throws readers into the harrowing experience of migrant teens escaping from different horrors in various corners of the world. Fifteen-year-old Abdul leaves war-torn Continue reading » That was where she needed to be, in a field of purple flowers, where no one could bother her. She would sit there until the confusion left her head and the stink of the camp left her nostrils.