num_pages: 171
description: Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11-year-old Parvana has rarely been outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets of Kabul, the heroine of Deborah Ellis's engrossing children's novel The Breadwinner is trapped inside her family's one-room home. That is, until the Taliban hauls away her father and Parvana realizes that it's up to her to become the "breadwinner" and disguise herself as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother. Set in the early years of the Taliban regime, this topical novel for middle readers explores the harsh realities of life for girls and women in modern-day Afghanistan. A political activist whose first book for children, Looking for X, dealt with poverty in Toronto, Ellis based The Breadwinner on the true-life stories of women in Afghan refugee camps.  In the wily Parvana, Ellis creates a character to whom North American children will have no difficulty relating. The daughter of university-educated parents, Parvana is thoroughly westernized in her outlook and responses. A pint-sized version of Offred from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Parvana conceals her critique of the repressive Muslim state behind the veil of her chador. Although the dialogue is occasionally stilted and the ending disappointingly sketchy, The Breadwinner is essential reading for any child curious about ordinary Afghans. Like so many books and movies on the subject, it is also eerily prophetic. "Maybe someone should drop a big bomb on the country and start again," says a friend of Parvana's. "'They've tried that,' Parvana said, 'It only made things worse.'" (Ages 9 to 12) --Lisa Alward
language: English
title: The Breadwinner
titlecomplete: The Breadwinner (The Breadwinner, #1)
characters: Nooria, Parvana
genres: Fiction, Historical, War, School, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Read For School, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 27265
places: Afghanistan
series: The Breadwinner
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Hackmatack Children's Choice Award
category: English Fiction, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Rocky Mountain Book Award
publisher: Groundwood Books