The Breadwinner

Rating:
Summary: Nobody Wins
Review: "Stay away from Afghan women or we'll kill you." Underneath was a crude drawing of a knife with blood dripping from it. This note was delivered in spring last year to Deborah Ellis who was in Peshawar, researching her book The Breadwinner. This is the story of Parvana, an eleven year old girl, who, in order to save herself and herfamily, cuts her hair short and wears the clothes of her older brother, Hossain, killed by a land mine.

Back in Toronto, Ellis paired up girls' schools in Ontario with girls' schools in the camps in Peshawar and Quetta. Funds were sent for building classrooms and establishing scholarships. In the spring and fall of 1998, Ellis visited Moscow. By this time she had begun researching the role of women in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She wanted to find out how this war, which lasted for 10 years, impacted on women from the time it started in 1979 until the present. Her book, Women of the Afghan War,published by Praeger, makes a connection between the women on both sides: the attacker and the attacked.

But the most searing indictment of conditions in Afghanistan is her most recent book, The Breadwinner. Written for children and published by Groundwood Books, The Breadwinner evolved from Ellis's conversations with refugee Afghan women and girls. There is a connection between The Breadwinner and Ellis's first book Looking for X, set in Toronto and winner of the Governor General's Award, 2000. In both books strong girl characters work out how to survive in a difficult world.

Ellis met the mother and sister of a girl in Kabul who cut off her hair, put on boy's clothes and sold things off a tray in the marketplace to support her family. "They told me a lot of girls were doing this," Ellis said. "Their fathers and brothers were killed or imprisoned, and they have to go out and earn money to support their families ."

What she heard reminded Ellis of children's enormous capacity for acts of courage when they cannot rely on the adult world. "Out of the horror of war and oppression that has been Afghanistan for the last two decades rise the voices for girls who insist on saying, 'We're still alive. We're still human. Hear us.'"

Parvana has lived for the past year and a half in one small room in Kabul with her father, mother, two sisters and baby brother. To cross this room on the third floor of a bombed out apartment building, Parvana takes ten steps one way and twelve steps the other way. The windows, in conformity with the decrees of the Taliban, are painted black - except for one window, small and high up, through which the sun's rays filter for a short period. Every day the women and children huddle together in this beam of light before it disappears.

Formerly this family, highly educated, of old respected Afghan stock, lived comfortably in a big house with a courtyard. They had a car and a couple of servants. The bombs destroyed their home and they had moved several times since then, losing more of their belongings with each subsequent bombing.

Ellis's achievement is that she has integrated within a suspenseful story the brutal conditions in Afghanistan. Every detail in her account of Parvana's family - to whom she does not give a last name, for even a fictional name can lead to terrible repercussions - is taken from first hand sources, and clandestine film footage smuggled out of Afghanistan.

The privations of this particular family are true for millions of others, especially those who live in Kabul. But, for the women and girls, who are under what amounts to house arrest, it is harder. Household chores like getting water, cooking, and caring for younger children develop into strategies for keeping alive, for keeping up one's morale.

It takes five pails of water to fill the metal drum, the family's water tank, housed in a miniscule alcove which also does duty as kitchen and lavatory. The hardship is not that there is no running water but that the women cannot fetch water from a communal tap outside. Restricted by their burquas, Parvana's mother and older sister, 17 year old Nooria, cannot negotiate the broken stairs, let alone lug a pail of water up them. The stairs were on the outside of the building, zigzagging back and forth on their way up. They had been damaged by the bomb, and didn't quite meet in places. Only some parts of the staircase had a railing... The streets, filled with potholes, are also hazardous. Women, covered from head to foot with mesh across their faces, often fall down and hurt themselves. Besides, going without a man is always dangerous.

And for those who have lost limbs it's even worse: There were a lot of false legs for sale in the market now. Since the Taliban decreed that women must stay inside, many husbands took their wives' false legs away. "You're not going anywhere, so why do you need a leg?" they asked.

Parvana's father, who is himself an amputee - he had lost the lower part of his leg during a bomb explosion - is hauled off to prison by the Taliban because he had spent time studying in England, and come back with "foreign" ideas. Reading matter, unrelated to the Qur'an, is subversive, and the Taliban, mostly illiterate, burn books they don't like. At first Parvana continues doing what her father, a history teacher, did: reading and writing letters in the market of Kabul for those who cannot read or write themselves - the majority of the population. Her university educated mother, who has been kicked out from her job as a writer at one of the radio stations, gives her things left over from the bombings to peddle at the market: dishes, bed linen, clothes.

But the family is still short of money for rent, food and fuel. While Parvana is trying to figure out how to earn more, she meets a former school mate, Shawzia, who is working as a tea boy in the market. Shawzia tells her if they have trays of their own, they can follow the crowd instead of waiting for the crowd to come to them. That way they'll make more money.

The two girls go bone-digging. They join the hordes of other children scrabbling in the churned-up earth

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: A friend reccomended the book to me after he had read it. When I read the back my nose was upturned and I was so not turned on by the sound of it, but he insisted that I read it. I read it and I definately was wrong! I now own my very own copy of it, and it's sequal Parvana's Journey. They are great books about what people on the other side of the war against terrorism are going through! It is very realistic when they tell about their lives and how they are running from the teliban!

Rating:
Summary: AN UPLIFTING TALE OF RESILIENCE AND STRENGTH
Review: Accomplished actress Rita Wolf ably reads "The Breadwinner," an affecting story of childhood in a repressive land.
As difficult as it may be for those of us who live in a free country to imagine, there are parts of the world where women and girls are not allowed to leave the confines of their homes without a man, and they must wear clothing that covers every part of their bodies. A bizarre look back at some nether region? No, it is a way of life in Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

Parvana, an 11-year-old girl, lives with her family in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan during the days when the Taliban held sway. Her home is one room in a bomb damaged apartment building.

Parvana's father, a former history teacher, now earns the family's living by sitting on a blanket in the marketplace and reading correspondence for those who cannot read or write. While the pittance he earns is negligible, it is something. That is taken away when he is arrested. The charge? He has a foreign education.

Now, there is no one to earn a living for the family or even to leave the house to shop for food.

Before long it is evident there is only one solution if the family is to survive - Parvana must disguise herself as a boy and become the family's breadwinner.

Listeners will be astounded at the strength and courage displayed by Parvana and, quite possibly, be reminded of the bravery evidenced by thousands of youngsters in ravaged countries. "The Breadwinner" is, indeed a sobering story. It is also an uplifting tale of stamina and strength in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: AN UPLIFTING TALE OF RESILIENCE AND STRENGTH
Review: Accomplished actress Rita Wolf ably reads "The Breadwinner," an affecting story of childhood in a repressive land.
As difficult as it may be for those of us who live in a free country to imagine, there are parts of the world where women and girls are not allowed to leave the confines of their homes without a man, and they must wear clothing that covers every part of their bodies. A bizarre look back at some nether region? No, it is a way of life in Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

Parvana, an 11-year-old girl, lives with her family in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan during the days when the Taliban held sway. Her home is one room in a bomb damaged apartment building.

Parvana's father, a former history teacher, now earns the family's living by sitting on a blanket in the marketplace and reading correspondence for those who cannot read or write. While the pittance he earns is negligible, it is something. That is taken away when he is arrested. The charge? He has a foreign education.

Now, there is no one to earn a living for the family or even to leave the house to shop for food.

Before long it is evident there is only one solution if the family is to survive - Parvana must disguise herself as a boy and become the family's breadwinner.

Listeners will be astounded at the strength and courage displayed by Parvana and, quite possibly, be reminded of the bravery evidenced by thousands of youngsters in ravaged countries. "The Breadwinner" is, indeed a sobering story. It is also an uplifting tale of stamina and strength in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: The Breadwinner
Review: After the United States began bombing Afghanistan, I looked for books about the region that might be appropriate for my 9 year old son to read. A friend found The Breadwinner and recommended that I read it before giving it to my son. While the book is very readable and tells a compelling story, it describes the brutality suffered under the Taliban in such a matter-of-fact way that I worry about the images children would carry around with them. Parents should know that Ellis' book describes the cutting off of thieves' hands, the killing of another girl's family, the arrest and disappearance of Parvana's father, the gathering of human bones to earn money, and the beating of Parvana and her mother. None of these are described in an unneccessarily graphic way. But I know that my own son, who has been very anxious about the state of the world since September 11, would internalize many of these images and be quite distressed. While I believe in being open with children about the truths of the world, I worry about the effects of this fictionalized account at this time. I also wonder how differently I might have reacted to this book before the events of September 11 and before the recent Western attacks on Afghanistan. While I have my concerns about the brutal images in the book, I recognize that this book may be very helpful to some children in gaining more of an understanding of the recent history of Afghanistan and may help some western children develop compassion for the children of Afghanistan.

Rating:
Summary: The Afghan Mulan
Review: Consider this a modern-day Mulan story, set in a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan rather than a Mongol-invaded China. The tale is historical fiction, based on true events recounted to the author during visits to Afghan refugee camps in the late 1990's. At that time, women had to be concealed in burqas and escorted by men whenever they went outdoors. So when the father of eleven-year-old Parvana is jailed by the Taliban, she is the only member of the family who can pass as a boy, and work outside to support the family. Told without any sense of sorrow or pity, the events are described on a level that children can appreciate: the matter-of-fact daily inconveniences of Parvana's life, like going to the well for water every day; the complications of the whole family living in a single room; the mother who cannot go outdoors keeps herself busy by continually rearranging the family's dwindling possessions; the teen-aged sister, bored and frustrated, amuses herself by teasing and insulting Parvana; the difficulty of finding anything to read, much less having enough light to read by; and the sudden realization that children don't have any toys or friends. Not threatening or overpowering because it seems a universe away from a comfortable American life, it has that Roald Dahl sense that children have innate common sense and power to solve grown-up problems. Also, Parvana's indomitable spirit will find a way to survive and overcome repression and cruelty. An excellent choice for young readers, and especially good for children's reading groups or school, as it raises so many issues for discussion.

Rating:
Summary: The Breadwinner
Review: Have you been in Afghnistan? You will feel like you have when you read the book The BreadWinner. The main character is Parvana. She is 11. She lives with her parents, her sisters, and her little brother. Women and girls have to were burqas outside. Parvana's father lost his leg in an explosion. He can read and write,so can Parvana.The Taliban ruled Afghanistan during is story .One day two soldiers took their father to jail. Mother and Parvana went to jail to get father released but the soldiers beat Parvana and her mother. Pavana had to dress as a boy so she can make money for her family. One day Parvana finds a girl also she knows dressed as a boy. Together they find ways to make money for their famlis. Will Parvana's father come back home? if you want to know, then read this fantastic called The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis.

Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: Hi, I'm only 12, but I thought this book was charming, you learn a lot with it, I really appreciated the book (couldn't put it down), and i recommend it.

Deborah Ellis, did a wonderfull job with this book...it's just great.

MEL :)

Rating:
Summary: Propaganda in the guise of children's literature
Review: I did not feel this book did justice to the current situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.

Although Ms. Ellis seems to have good intentions in writing this book I feel that she failed to deal with the underlying issues of the social problems there and blatantly misrepresented a number of key issues.

For example: on pg. 13 of her book she writes:

"After the Soviets left, the people who had been shooting at the Soviets decided they wanted to keep shooting at something, so they shot at each other..."

This belies the complex dynamics of the situation and is an out right dismissal of the underlying causes for the Taliban to have stepped in and taken over.

Unfortunately Ms. Ellis failed to put the Taliban regime in the context of any larger historical picture. Instead the book is a compilation of various incidents of alleged abuse by the Taliban that serve her political agenda.

In fact the main failure of the book, in my opinion, is the way in which Ms. Ellis portrays the Taliban as cardboard villains with no humanity, no compassion and only brutality to guide them.

The fact that they are religious extremists, who've taken a very stern approach to interpretting Islamic law and jurisprudence is never once dealt with in the scope of the book. In fact Islam is barely mentioned. They are treated as a kind of 'bogeymen'. In fact in one passage on p. 79 and 80 she writes:

"Parvana took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Up until then, she had seen Talibs only as men who beat women and arrested her father. Could they have feelings of sorrow, like other human beings?"

I suppose Ms. Ellis was trying to be gracious in acknowledging that they might be human, but I find the statement only adds insult to injury.

I would think that the character, having grown up in an Islamic atmosphere, would not question the humanity of these people. This seems to be the author interjecting her own bias.

I would argue that the actions of the Taliban that are mentioned in the book are similar in scope to lynchings and KKK brutalities of some of the Southern states and not necessarily sanctioned by the Taliban. Nobody would assume that just because these types of actions occurred down there, and were sometimes covertly sanctioned by the authorities, that all the police force of the South were involved in the crimes and are crooked. This is the type of leap in logic that Ms. Ellis seems to ask of the reader.

Ms. Ellis also fails to mention any good that the Taliban have done, such as stabilizing the region. Afghanistan is a very safe place now. Gone are the rapes and murders immediately following the Soviets' withdrawal.

I also found that the characters of the family showed no Islamic characteristics whatsoever. In fact there is no reference to an Islamic context at all in the entire book. The characters in the story could just as easily be Westerners plunked down in the middle of this exotic setting.

Another problem I had with the book is the incorrect dates given at the back. Ms. Ellis says that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1980 when in fact they invaded in 1979. Also she states that they left in 1989 when in fact they didn't leave till 1993, at least. (I'm positive of this because I too visited the Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan in 1992 and the Soviets were still in the midst of their battle with the Afghans.)

What Ms. Ellis failed to realize is that by talking to the refugees, who were disgruntled enough to leave Afghanistan, she was not necessarily getting an accurate picture of life inside Afghanistan. Perhaps the refugees had an axe to grind.

And as she states in the book, the Afghans are a fierce tribal people, if they did not agree with the Taliban, you can bet they would rise up and throw off their rule with no compunction whatsoever. So on some level, the Taliban rule is serving a purpose for them.

While I don't doubt that the incidents mentioned, occurred, what I think is misleading is the lack of context.

She also spoke of the fighting in the north as if it wasn't the result of a few rebel leaders trying to carve out territory for themselves. She made it sound as if they were fighting in the interest of the Afghan people rather than their own selfish motives.

It's unfortunate that Ms. Ellis missed the opportunity to delve into some deeper issues in tackling this subject matter and instead chose to write a superficial and obviously biased book that amounts to little more than propaganda.

Rating:
Summary: Very good...
Review: I had to read this book for my English class, but I didn't want to in the beginning. It didn't sound very good from the description. I couldn't have been more wrong! I read it in less than a day, and have read it about 3 times since then. It's soooooo good!!!! The only thing I didn't like was the end, because you want to know what happens. I SOOOOO reccommend Parvana's Journey, which is the sequel. It's better than this!