My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis
Published by Oxford University Press, 2013
My Name is Parvana is the final book in The Breadwinner Trilogy by Deborah Ellis. Parvana is now fifteen and is being held at a military camp after being found in a bombed-out school by American troops.
Suspected as working for the Taliban she is imprisoned, threatened, harassed and mistreated over several days but she remains silent. While in captivity she looks back over the past four years during which she and her sisters almost died from hunger under Taliban rule and how she travelled against immeasurable odds across a war-ravaged Afghanistan to find her family. She must find a way to protect her family, and keep her hope alive. Resilient as always she savours a cell that offers running water and a bed of her own.
This is Afghanistan, and the war is far from over. Parvana and her family are in danger in a country that views the education and freedom of girls and women with suspicion and fear.
A riveting page-turner, this thought-provoking book will be equally appreciated by older children, teenagers and adults.
Deborah Ellis’ books give western readers a glimpse into the plight of children in developing countries. She has spent a lot of time in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, talking to women and documenting their lives through 20 years of war. The stories she heard and the children she met were the inspiration for The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey, Mud City, and My Name is Parvana.
