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Parvana's Journey
CCBC Review:
All my girls are smart," Parvana's father used to tell her. "You will grow into strong, brave women and you will rebuild our poor Afghanistan." Now 13, Parvana has just buried her father. Separated from her mother and siblings in war-ravaged Afghanistan, where the Taliban still rules, she travels by foot across the country, holding out hope that she will find them again. When Parvana finds a baby in an abandoned, burned out village, she cannot leave him behind. She trades the burden of her father's beloved books for the weight of the boy she names Hassan. Soon, Asif, a prickly, wounded boy who has lost a leg, has joined them, and then they meet Leila, a spirited, nine-year-old girl who wears her wounds in the way she moves through the world, touched by the belief she cannot be killed by land mines. This foursome takes refuge in the valley where Leila has been living with her aging grandmother. The Green Valley, Parvana calls it, using the name she had given to the place of ideal refuge she had created in her daydreams. But the Green Valley isn't a dream, it's part of the real world, where the war eventually finds them once again. Deborah Ellis's sequel to her 2001 novel The Breadwinner (Groundwood) is an important and moving book that humanizes the headlines, distilling for young readers a conflict and recent history that can sometimes seem incomprehensible to a story about children they can know and understand, children like them. While the accomplishments of Parvana and her companions may seem occasionally unrealistic, their situation is compelling and their interactions feel authentic (the relationship between Parvana and Asif is especially satisfying). And despite the tragedy of their situation, Ellis manages to tell their story without overwhelming young readers. ©2003 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 10-13
Age Range:
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Afghanis and Afghani Americans
Friendship
Girls and Women
Journeys and Quests
Oppression
Physical Disability
Separation
Survival
War
Diversity subject:
Asian
Muslim
Physical Disability/Condition
Publishers:
Groundwood, Douglas & McIntyre
Publish Year: 2002
Pages: 199
ISBN: 0888995148
CCBC Location: Fiction, Ellis