Deborah Ellis is coming to KL in June for an author event I'm organizing at the Museum, so I wanted to review the books of hers that I had read and hopefully add a few more titles. This trilogy includes three novels for children probably 9-12: The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and Mud City.
We meet Parvana in The Breadwinner, where to support her family in Kabul, Afghanistan, she dresses as a boy and sells items in the local market, where she meets Shauzia, a friend from her school, who is doing the same thing to support her family. Parvana's father has been arrested by the Taliban, and there is no one to bring money into the house. At the end of this one, Parvana's father is released, but by then her mother and her siblings have left to attend the wedding of the oldest daughter, Nooria. Parvana and her Dad set out to meet the rest of their family.
In Parvana's Journey - which I really enjoyed - the father dies from his injuries while in prison and Parvana is left on her own to continue to search for her mother. Her journey takes her through some pretty rough country, with some harrowing adventures, until she reaches a refugee camp and finds her mother and sisters. Throughout the book she writes letters to her friend Shauzia just to keep her focus, and Mud City, the third of the trilogy, focusses on Shauzia and her efforts to reach " the sea" and sail to France. This story is mostly set in what is called a Working Mothers' Compound, but at the end she leaves with Mrs. Weera, her mother figure, and some other nurses to return to Afghanistan.
The next book, I Am A Taxi, is also set in Afghanistan.
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