Rated: 3.7 Moons Your Rating:

Eleven-year-old Parvana lives in Kabul, Afghanistan, which is ruled by a group of religious extremists called the Taliban. Her family of six lives in a one-room apartment and she only goes outside to help her disabled father walk to work. But unlike most girls in Afghanistan, Parvana can read. Even though the Taliban has banned many books, Parvana loves to read her father’s secret stash of history and literature.

One day, Taliban soldiers burst into the apartment and take Parvana’s father to prison. With no men in the house, no one can get paid work, so Parvana cuts her hair short and pretends to be a boy. At first she works at her father’s stall in the marketplace, reading and writing letters for illiterate Afghanis. Then she starts picking up other odd jobs, from selling chewing gum to digging bones out of a bombed cemetery. Parvana is always on guard because if she’s caught pretending to be a boy, she could face arrest or worse.

As I read this book, I put myself into Parvana’s life. Parvana is a loveable heroine who survives in a war-torn country using her creativity and intelligence. She faces hardships most of us will never know, such as rarely going outside, walking for miles to get information about her father, and being beaten by soldiers. I can’t imagine having to live through this, and I admire Parvana’s courage and her feisty spirit. 

Deborah Ellis paints a lovely picture of Afghanistan, even in its destruction after 20 years of wars. I could see everything she spun into her tale: the dusty roads, the bustling marketplace, the shambles of buildings. While describing the wreckage of a country, she creates beautiful settings and people that take the reader on a journey through a rarely-seen place.

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