Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. Hardship is easier to bear with support from family and friends. Unusual times require ordinary people to do unusual things. Even in dire circumstances, courage helps cultivate hope. It's possible to find ways to transcend the most oppressive circumstances, though doing so may involve taking great risks. In her latest novel focused on world issues, Ellis (the Breadwinner trilogy) focuses on the plight of AIDS orphans in Mulawi. In the opening chapters, current events take precedence over character Continue reading »

Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak by Deborah Ellis collects 20 heart-wrenching interviews with children, from her travels through Israel and Palestine in the winter of 2002. After Continue reading »As conditions for the family grow desperate, only one solution emerges. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner. It has been 20 years since Parvana and Shauzia had to disguise themselves as boys to support themselves and their families. But when the Taliban were defeated in 2001, it looked as if Afghans could finally rebuild their country. Many things have changed for Parvana since then. She has married Asif, who she met in the desert as she searched for her family when she was a child. She runs a school for girls. She has a son, Rafi, who is about to fly to New York, where he will train to become a dancer. Spring turns to summer. The market ceases to interest Parvana, though the tribal people who sell fruit share their stories, which Parvana then shares them her family. Mother and Mrs. Weera start a school for girls. Nooria teaches, but it’s hard with limited time and resources. The Window Woman continues to drop gifts, but one day, Parvana hears the woman’s husband beating her. She plans to tell her family, but Mother announces that Nooria is getting married. Later, Nooria tells Parvana that this is a great opportunity—her new in-laws will send her to university, and the Taliban doesn’t control Mazar-e-Sharif, where her future husband lives. Mother decides that they’ll all go to Mazar for the wedding, but Parvana refuses. She’s afraid that Father will get out of prison and no one will be home. Incensed, Mother decides to leave Parvana. Since Parvana is the only family member who could pass for male, Mrs. Weera and Mother cut her hair, and Parvana dresses in her dead brother's clothing. Parvana then goes to the marketplace and resumes her father's job of earning money by reading letters for illiterate people.

Parvana's mother becomes depressed, lying speechless on a thin mattress. Mrs. Weera, a former physical education teacher and friend of Parvana's mother, comes to stay with the family to help run the household. Soon, she and Parvana's mother plan to start a secret school in the house and write a magazine that will collect Afghan women's stories, which they will smuggle to Pakistan to publish. They dress Parvana in her dead brother's clothes so that she can buy groceries and work. Parvana begins to work as a boy and runs her father's stall in the market. Danger is ever present, and men, women, and children are fearful of beating or imprisonment by the Taliban or being killed by mines or bombs. Children dig up human bones to earn money. Father lost leg in school bombing; child overhears woman assaulted in home; men, women, and children are beaten; children witness thieves getting arms chopped off in public punishment; child recounts violent deaths of family; woman describes seeing wild dogs eating bodies. This quote helps illustrate in better detail just how limited women's power and agency had become after the Taliban took control. Like Father, many other men and women lost legs from bombings and wore prosthetics. Something that was supposedly meant to protect them only stripped them of their freedoms, and many men took advantage of that. Hossain was Parvana's 14-year-old deceased older brother who died after stepping on a landmine. Parvana was only a toddler when he died and has no memory of him.The next morning, Mother and Parvana set off for the prison. As they walk, Mother shows people a photo of Father. At the prison, Parvana remembers Malali and helps her mother yell at the soldiers. They beat Mother until Parvana agrees to go. When they get home, Parvana realizes that Mother’s feet are bleeding—she hasn’t been out since the Taliban arrived. Nooria tends to Mother while Maryam washes Parvana’s blistered feet. Mother cries and lies on a toshak for days. The food runs out, and since Parvana and Nooria are too afraid to fetch water, they stop washing Ali’s diapers. On the fourth day, Nooria tells Parvana to buy food in the market. Homa is a young teenager that Parvana finds in a bombed-out building in the Kabul marketplace. She remains in Kabul with Parvana, Mrs. Weera, and Father. Father: Parvana's dad, and a former teacher. He's intelligent and foreign-educated, which leads to his arrest. Parvana takes courage from his stories. Keira Hulihan has taught preschool and elementary-age children for over two years in science, English and other subjects with some experience in lesson planning for middle and high school levels. They have a Bachelors in English/Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz. They have several short stories published in a campus literary journal and won an Honorable Mention award for creative non-fiction. Parvana: The eleven-year-old heroine of The Breadwinner, risks her own life to help her family, even though she just wants to be a normal kid.

In an invaluable, eye-opening narrative history, Ellis (the Breadwinner series) presents interviews with dozens of youth ages nine to 18 from among the 565 federally recognized Native tribes in the Continue reading »

Sequel to The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis follows the eponymous 12-year-old girl who, disguised as a boy, sets off from Kabul in search of her missing mother and siblings in Continue reading » Masquerading as a boy, Parvana takes on great responsibilities -- but she also feels a sense of freedom. Have you ever felt that way? lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you Ellis (the Breadwinner trilogy) again brings an individual humanity to newspaper headlines. Giving voice to an orphan girl living on the streets of Calcutta unaware of her leprosy, Ellis turns a Continue reading »