The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (2000)

This book is about Parvana and her family living in Afghanistan. Her family has been affected by several bombings resulting in the loss of a brother and her family having to live in a one room apartment. During this time, women are seen as a much lower class than men. When Parvana's father is arrested for his foreign education, Parvana must take on the role of the head male of the family to make money. While making money she stumbles upon a good friend and goes through some tough jobs to help ends meet. As the book progresses, the women of the family begin to show their strength by opening a secret school and creating a magazine to show the world what life is really like in Afghanistan. Parvana's sister gets a marriage offer and the women travel to accept. Eventually Parvana's father returns, but only in time to find out that the area the rest of their family traveled to is under attack.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I thought there were some loose ends in the plot that never got tied up. I am curious to know if they flow into the next book since this is the first book of a trilogy. Aside from that, I think this book covers a tough issue but through vocabulary that elementary students can understand. There is one scene where Parvana and her friend are collecting bones to make money. Although this is a very mature thing to write about, it wasn't gory or too descriptive, but it still made a point. The cover art is a great representation of the story. If you refer to the glossary in the back, you see several words that are unique to Afghanistan culture. Even though they are defined in the glossary, if you look at the cover art, you see several of the new vocabulary being depicted through art such as the burqa. The book is written from Parvana's perspective, which is easy to believe through the way her thoughts are written. The language used in the book is versatile enough that this book could be used among a range of grades.

I could see many uses of this book in my future classroom. I think it would be most appropriate for mid to upper elementary grades. I think this book would also need to be accompanied by a background lesson on the Taliban/Afghanistan area. It would also require a lot of teacher instruction and check for understanding. This book could be used to help students understand more of why the Middle East is in the state it is in, and why we have military over in that area. It also helps students see what another culture is like and addresses the issue of sexism. I could see this book having very unique lesson plans and activities to help students understand what that culture really is like. One activity idea my group had was to have the students experience the act of carrying a water pail like Parvana does in many parts of the book. This would help them understand a little bit of what it would be like to be in Parvana's shoes.