Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Breadwinner
by Deborah Ellis
Parvana is a girl living in Kabul, Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. In a society where grown women are held prisoner to repressive rules of behavior, Parvana is just the right age. She is old enough to run errands for the family and help her crippled father get around town. But then her father gets hauled off by the Taliban soldiers and the burden of supporting the family falls on her young shoulders. She's the only one in her family who can masquerade as a boy, don't you know. (Well, except for baby Ali, I suppose, who really is a boy.) As far as a girl-masquerading-as-a-boy tale goes, The Breadwinner is pretty typical. What makes the book interesting is the picture of Taliban run Afghanistan it offers. 'Tis a culture of oppression, yet one that had failed to totally eliminate hope. I can only pray that hope and justice win out wherever such regimes hold sway.
For waiting room material, it's rather good.
LibraryThing link
Parvana is a girl living in Kabul, Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. In a society where grown women are held prisoner to repressive rules of behavior, Parvana is just the right age. She is old enough to run errands for the family and help her crippled father get around town. But then her father gets hauled off by the Taliban soldiers and the burden of supporting the family falls on her young shoulders. She's the only one in her family who can masquerade as a boy, don't you know. (Well, except for baby Ali, I suppose, who really is a boy.) As far as a girl-masquerading-as-a-boy tale goes, The Breadwinner is pretty typical. What makes the book interesting is the picture of Taliban run Afghanistan it offers. 'Tis a culture of oppression, yet one that had failed to totally eliminate hope. I can only pray that hope and justice win out wherever such regimes hold sway.
For waiting room material, it's rather good.
LibraryThing link
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 8:50 PM 
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