The Breadwinner

By Deborah Ellis

Subjects: Women's rights, fiction, Disguise, Cartoons and comics, Manners and customs, Sex role, Girls, Taliban, Children's fiction, Social life and customs, American literature, Determination (Personality trait), Women's rights, Juvenile fiction, Survival, fiction, Sex role, fiction, Afghanistan, fiction

Description: Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11-year-old Parvana has rarely been outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets of Kabul, the heroine of Deborah Ellis's engrossing children's novel The Breadwinner is trapped inside her family's one-room home. That is, until the Taliban hauls away her father and Parvana realizes that it's up to her to become the "breadwinner" and disguise herself as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother.