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Juvenile Fiction. Juvenile Literature. HTML: The second book in the internationally-bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Mud City and My Name Is Parvana A war is raging in Afghanistan as a coalition of Western forces tries to oust the Taliban by bombing the country. Parvana's father has died, and her mother, sister and brother have gone to a faraway wedding, not knowing what has happened to the father. Parvana doesn't know where they are. She just knows she has to find them. She sets out alone, masquerading as a boy, her journey becoming more perilous as the bombs begin to fall. Making her way across the desolate Afghan countryside, she meets other children who are strays from the war �?? an infant boy in a bombed-out village, a nine-year-old girl who believes she has magical powers over land mines, and a boy with one leg who is so obnoxious that Parvana can hardly stand him. The children travel together because it is easier than being alone. And, as they forge their own family in the war zone that Afghanistan has become, their resilience, imagination and luck help them to survive. The reissue includes a new cover and map, an updated author's note and a glossary to provide young readers with background and context. All royalties from the sale of this book will go to Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. Parvana's Fund supports education projects for Afghan women and children.… (more)
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Library Implications: This book makes a strong addition to a young person’s book collection. It brings students to a reality they have been completely unaware of in the past. While reading this book, students could do further research into the plight of the young child in Afghanistan. They could also investigate organizations established to ease the suffering of children affected by the Taliban and war effort. Students may even be compelled to create a project or event that raises contributions for that organization.
It’s a beautiful story of great struggle, told from the point of view of a child, who sees all the miseries of war and bravely asks why and dares to seek a life without the ongoing ugliness of war.
It is Parvana’s memory of her friend who set off to find the purple fields of France that inspires her to go on, even after encountering the wailing woman, even after seeing the baby come close to death, even after trying to push the irritating one-legged boy on, even after walking for days with no food and no water.
This is a book I can see myself telling everyone I know that they must read.
A 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
A powerful story of children caught up in the madness of war, Parvana's Journey is based - like all of the books in Deborah Ellis's Breadwinner Trilogy - upon the author's experiences working at a camp for Afghani refugees. Here are moments of almost unbearable heart-ache, as when Parvana loses her father, imprisoned in The Breadwinner for the crime of having an education, and only just restored to the family. But here too are moments of hope, however brief, moments when the human spirit asserts itself. Parvana's courage, her determination to help the other children, will inspire and humble readers who have never had to confront the horrors described.
She absolutely loved it.
I thought it was depressing as hell.
But
It really was written very well - gives you a look into what it's like trying to live and grow up in a country that's been in a constant state of war for the past 30 years.