Book-A-Day Almanac

Many make reading resolutions for the New Year, and I do as well for the Almanac. Last year, a consulting project I worked on made me painfully aware of how few of our best books for children focus on other than English-speaking countries. So this year I intend to write more Almanac entries with an international focus, such as Little White Duck from last month.

The best book to start out my resolution is Deborah Ellis’s extraordinary novel The Breadwinner, first published in 2001. For this book that is used in fifth through seventh grade classrooms and has been translated into twenty-five languages, Ellis focuses on the plight of women in Afghanistan during the regime of the Taliban. Had Ellis created a polemic about this topic, the book would be long out of print. But she brings to life one girl, Parvana, and her family in a way that haunts readers long after they have closed the book’s cover.

Eleven-year-old Parvana had to leave her sixth grade class because women were ordered to stay inside their homes by the Taliban. She lives in one cramped room with her father, mother, older sister, Nooria, younger sister, Maryam, and a two-year-old brother. Her father, who was wounded by a bomb while teaching high school, now reads letters for people in the marketplace. Since so few Afghans are literate, he cobbles together enough money to keep his family fed in this manner. Parvana’s family has known better days—but the destruction from war along with the repression of the Taliban has left them with only a meager existence.

But when her father gets arrested for no apparent reason, that existence is threatened. In an act of desperation, the family cuts off Parvana’s hair, dresses her like a boy, and sends her into the streets alone to find a way to feed the family. Fortunately she meets another young girl engaged in the same scheme. In one haunting chapter the two girls go to the graveyard to dig up and sell bones to make money.

While a story about family at its heart, The Breadwinner brings contemporary headlines to life. Parvana seems like every young girl in her determination and drive. Yet she is caught in tragic circumstances. For those who fall in love with this character, Ellis continues her sage in Parvana’s Journey, Mud City, and My Name Is Parvana, published in 2012. Because of the content, the books work extremely well when young readers can discuss the story in a group setting. No matter how the books are read, however, these novels give readers perspective on what’s important in life. And they remind American readers to be grateful for what they have.

Here’s a passage from The Breadwinner: