Deborah Ellis – Cannonball Read 17

“This is Afghanistan …. What do you want — a happy ending?”

My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis

July 16, 2020 by ElCicco 1 Comment

Cbr12bingo Red In this final novel of Deborah Ellis’ The Breadwinner series, we are reunited with Parvana, the young girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to support her family and survive in war torn, Taliban controlled Afghanistan. Several years have passed, Parvana is now a teenager, and Afghanistan is still rocked by war. US troops and bases are nearby, and the Taliban is still terrorizing the people, especially women and girls. Through her YA novels, Ellis shows the perspective of a girl, […]

The story of a child refugee

Mud City by Deborah Ellis

July 14, 2020 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Cbr12bingo Yellow Mud City, the third novel in Ellis’ The Breadwinner series, is the story of Shauzia, the best friend of The Breadwinner’s main character Parvana. In book 1, readers learned that Shauzia, like Parvana, was pretending to be a boy in Taliban-controlled Kabul so that she could work and earn money to support her family at home. Women and girls were denied education and independence and to break the rules was to invite severe punishment, even death. While we don’t learn a lot about […]

“Tanks were normal. Bombs were normal. Why couldn’t eating be normal?”

Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis

July 13, 2020 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

CBR12bingo Green Parvana’s Journey is the second book in Ellis’ The Breadwinner series and picks up shortly after Parvana and her father have left Kabul, Afghanistan, circa 2000, in search of the rest of their family. Ellis continues to focus on matters of war and violence from the perspective of Afghanistan’s refugee children. Like The Breadwinner, this is a short YA novel, appropriate for children age 10 or so and older. It shows the horrors of war and family separation through the eyes of Parvana […]

Fresh Start and Fresh View on War in Afghanistan

The Breadwinner: A Novel by Deborah Ellis

July 11, 2020 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Cbr12bingo Fresh Start Published in 2000, The Breadwinner is the first book in a four-part YA series that looks at events in Afghanistan from the point of view of an eleven-year-old girl named Parvana. This young adult series introduces readers to the war-filled history of a country that had once been more open and free but has come under the control of the Taliban. The Breadwinner has been made into an animated film and graphic novel, which I read a few Cannonballs ago. I can […]

Children and War in Afghanistan

July 1, 2018 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This graphic novel was adapted from a film version of Deborah Ellis’ novel The Breadwinner. The novel is actually part of a series much acclaimed in Canada, and based on this graphic novel version of the first volume, I can understand why. It is visually gorgeous, and the story, which is based on things Ellis learned while touring an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan in 1997, is gripping. The Breadwinner is the story of an 11-year-old girl named Parvana who has to disguise herself as […]

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