Parvana by Deborah Ellis

Like Heather, I also finished reading Parvana recently for an English/SOSE unit on Refugees that I will be doing with my class on placement. Parvana is a wonderful book that subtly gives children insights into life in Afghanistan through the innocent 11 year old protagonist, Parvana. It highlights the contrasts between life in Australia and life in the Middle-East surrounding war, resources and the superiority of males over females. Parvana dresses as a boy in order to go out into the market place and earn money to feed her family after her father is arrested. This book can be used to really question students and challenge their thinking by putting themselves in Parvana's shoes.

The narrative consists of 15 chapters and reflects the narrative structure, however the story is not resolved at the end. This indicates to the reader that there will be another narrative to follow, which is precisely the case. The sequel is  titled, 'Parvana's Journey'. The book is an international best seller, also known as 'The Breadwinner' that rose to fame in 2000 when it was first published. I remember my teacher reading this narrative to my class when I was only 8 years old.

I would reccommend this book for students anywhere between the ages of 9-12 as the story is easy to read but there are many underlying themes that younger students would not be able to understand. Parvana is being used as a shared reading text in my 5/6 class. I have provided students with a glossary and engaged background information discussion to aid their understanding of the context within the narrative. After each chapter, students are required to write a brief chapter summary that highlights the main events within the chapter and draw a small illustration to accompany their summary. I am finding that this is working well as students are making meaning from my readings of each chapter and are demonstrating this within their summaries. Depending on the reading level of the child I would reccommend this book as an independent reading option for between the ages of 10-12. Younger students are less likely to be able to make meaning from the text on their own.

Kirsty

http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=312&author=101  - This website provides a short biography of the author, Deborah Ellis and includes a book list of all of her work to date. See if you can notice a theme across the different books that she has written.

http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781865086941 - A description of the book, Parvana.