JCPL Kids

Deborah Ellis is the author of the Breadwinner Trilogy. This is a very tense and emotional series about a family in Afghanistan before and after Taliban rule. In the first three books, you are introduced to Parvana and her family and are a witness to the harsh reality that is their lives.

This is a story as real as today's headlines. Just a few months ago, Malala Yousufzai, a 14 year old Pakistani girl, was shot by the Taliban for the crime of going to school!

Deborah Ellis is telling the further story of Parvana, in her latest book, My Name is Parvana.

If you have read the trilogy, you should read this follow-up, set five years later. Parvana is now 15 years old and living in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

If you haven't read the previous three books and you are interested in what life is like in Afghanistan, this is a great series. I loved them all. Here are the other three in the series:

The Breadwinner

Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because Parvana's father has a foreign education, he is arrested by the Taliban. The family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan.

Parvana's Journey

In this sequel to "The Breadwinner, " the Taliban still control Afghanistan, but Kabul is in ruins.

Mud City

This final book in the trilogy paints a devastating portrait of life in refugee camps and shows the resourcefulness of children who endure great suffering there.

Deborah Ellis has also written a non-fiction book called Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-ending War.  Ellis went to Kabul and interviewed children who spoke about their lives since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Have things changed for children and particularly for girls? Read this book and find out!