The Bread Winner was a very good book, it talks about a life of a girl in Afghanistan and what she had to do for her and her family to survive. Her dad gets arrested but comes back after, the story is touching, the details are descriptive. 

At the end Parvana says a final goodbye to the town she used to live in and find another life with her family once reunited again, Parvana and her friend say their goodbyes and say that they will meet in 20 years in Paris. 

I think the story should be recommend for other students because the story talks about what is happening now and how a child life is and how everyone should appreciate their life. The book was enjoyable and I had a great time reading it.

On chapter 14 Parvana find the real identity of the girl she met at the building, the girl’s family was killed and she was the only survivor. She was very depressed and wanted her family back; Mrs Weera decided that she would stay with Parvana and her family. One day when Parvana didn’t go back to work her friend Shauzia asked her to go back to work. One day Parvana was going home from work and she found some men carrying her dad home.

Parvana found out about her sister getting married in the last chapter; Parvana asked Nooria if she knew the man and they were neighbours for a period of time. They would move to the Northern part of Afghanistan because there are no Taliban soldiers, her family would be back in October but she didn’t want to go because her father might come back home soon and she wanted to meet him again.

Parvana’s mother would insist her to go with them to the wedding but she wanted to stay, after a while her mother told her to stay home so Mrs. Weera and her grandchild would watch over her. One day it was raining and Parvana hide in a bombed building she fell asleep and woke up thinking it was still night time while she heard someone crying.

Parvana stayed home for a few days because of what happened in the Stadium, when she came back to the market place Shauzia came to tell Parvana her secret. Her friend wanted to earn enough money and take a boat to France because she couldn’t stand the family in her home, Parvana also told Shauzia her secret about the women who would drop items for Parvana to sell.

In the summer it would be hot, the small window would make the children all cranky and whiny, the secret school had started, and the Taliban soldiers would shut down schools right away so Mrs. Weera had to be extra careful. Nooria was the teacher as well, sometimes the children would come to the house or Nooria would come to their house. One day the women would give items to Parvana every week or so, but one day she heard a mad yelling at someone and thuds, Parvana went to look at the window and see but there was nothing. When Parvana went home she heard the news that Nooria would get married. 

Parvana came home and her mother was worried sick and asked her where she went, Parvana couldn’t hold it any longer and had to tell her mom about what she did to earn extra money. Parvana’s mother told Parvana to stop digging up graves because they had enough money to feed the family, Nooria objected to her mother’s saying and told her that they needed more money and they had nothing else to sell in the market. By the end of two weeks Parvana and Shauzia had enough money to buy trays and started to think about selling cigarettes and gum in packages.

When Parvana was back to her letter reading job, the house next door dropped more stuff for Parvana and Parvana would wonder who the lady was. One day there was a soccer game playing Parvana and her friend thought it was a good way to sell their cigarettes and their gum, when they reached the stadium nobody was cheering, they stayed till the soccer players came out but it wasn’t any soccer players it was Taliban soldiers cutting off a thieves arms. Parvana and her friend were extremely frightened. 

The idea Shafiq came up with was bones, they had to dig up bones to make some money. Parvana and Shafiq left Parvana’s stand and went to and old cemetery to dig up the bones, bombs would land in that area so the bones would be easy to pick up.

When Parvana reached the cemetery there was nothing in sight everything was ruined and there were no good buildings left, she noticed a man with a large scale near a ruined building he was the bone broker, he would buy the bones from the girls who dug up the bones. The other tea boys got digging early so Parvana decided to too, Parvana and Shafiq started to dig and they found a skull and lots of bones. The skull would be grinning at them and Shafiq thought it would be a good idea to let me lay on the blanket so he can watch over them.

Shafiq had to go to the bathroom so she made a joke about to be careful about the landmines, Parvana remembered that in school they would show her want landmines looked like, they looked like rocks that can blow you up in any second without warning, and they can be disguised as toys to blow up children. Parvana was scared but she couldn’t hold her pee much longer so she had to find a private place to go to the bathroom. When they were finished picking up all the bones they were really happy with the money they earned, Parvana and Shafiq planned to meet again in the morning to dig up more bones.

When Parvana met with her old classmate that was a tea boy she was shocked. Her friend Shafiq told Parvana to wait where she was so she could give her a present. After a while her friend came back with apricots, there was enough for one of each family member, Parvana and Shafiq walked home and talked about how the family members were arrested, much money they’re making, and how they miss school. Parvana was remembering the memories about how Parvana and her friends would wake home and complain about school and teachers.

Parvana invited Shafiq to meet her family and say hello, it was getting late outside so Shafiq cannot stay any longer. When they got inside Parvana’s house everyone greeted her like she was close to them but they never met her. Mrs. Weera and her mother planned to have a secret school for girls and teach them field hockey. Mother wanted to publish her magazine, while Parvana was away people came over to visit her mother and their husbands will help and support them. Almost every day Shafiq would come and meet up with Parvana and talk to her about the usual stuff. Shafiq had a plan to get more money but Parvana would not like the idea; Shafiq told her anyways and Parvana did not like the idea.

 

Mrs. Weera told Parvana that she would be moving into her home from now on to get her family back in shape. Nooria would make comments about Parvana’s doing but she would just ignore them because she was just in a good mood to be arguing. Mrs. Weera told Parvana about her story how there were only a few Weera’s left.

Parvana’s sister Maryam wanted to go get some water with Parvana. But her shoes were too small on her so they went to get her new ones; the whole family except for Parvana hasn’t been outside for over a year and a half. After a trip to the tap water Parvana and her sister were having a good time, they went to get water from time to time, the family was getting better, Parvana was earning money for the family not a lot but at least she got enough to feed the whole family. After a few days all the siblings would come out to play and soak in the sun.

One day while Parvana was in the market she found her father, she ran up to him trying to reach out to him but when she saw a better look on her father’s face it wasn’t him, it was just an old man who looked like him she was very disappointed. One day Parvana was getting off work and she found a bracelet, she looked around to who dropped this she looked at the wall next to her and the black window she saw a lady who smiled at her and left. The next day she was watching the tea boys playing a game and she noticed that one of them was a girl from her old school.

Chapter 7 was a short chapter but it was a good chapter as well. Parvana’s mother told her to go to the market and get some money for her and the family to spend it on food and such. Parvana liked the idea of going out to sell and read letters for others was a good idea; because she thought yesterday’s shopping spree was well done. Parvana packed the things for the market stand; she took her fancy shalwar kameez and took off.

Parvana’s mother told her if anyone asked who she was she would have to say “I am Parvana’s father’s nephew Kaseem.” Parvana was worried that someone would go up to her and yell out “GIRL!” but nobody has said anything to her yet. The Taliban came across her stand and asked her if she was a letter reader, she thought the Taliban would take out his gun and shoot her but instead he took out a letter and made her read it.

The letter was old; it was from his wife’s aunt. Parvana read it and it explained how the aunt couldn’t attend the wedding and how she was doing in Germany. The Taliban announced that his wife died, and that was one of her possessions that he cherished. Parvana kept on thinking about the solider when he left, she kept asking herself “Tablians soldiers have sad lives too.”  A man came by hr stand and asked Parvana how much her shalwar kameez was, Parvana said her price but the man bargained for smaller, they kept on bargaining until they came into an agreement. Parvana was really proud of herself when she earned some money for her family, and she left to go for lunch.

Parvana found out that she was going to be turned into a boy. Mrs. Weera explained to everyone why they would turn Parvana into a boy; so Parvana would go outside fetch some water, get groceries, and do things a man can do in their country. Out of the whole family Parvana was the only one who looked like a boy.

The whole family agreed to turn Parvana into a boy, the mom suggested that Parvana should wear Hossain’s (her deceased brother) clothing. Parvana and her mom went into the washroom so they could cut her long hair into a short cut. After her mother cut her hair Parvana could look at her facial features easily and she liked how her hair turned out. Parvana then took her brother’s clothing and put it on, she showed the whole family how she looked; her sister told her she looked better a boy than a girl, the mother just couldn’t look at Parvana properly because she looked like her older brother.

Mrs. Weera then told Parvana that when people ask where she came from she should tell them se was visiting her aunt from this city or whatsoever. Parvana stepped outside the door; she was afraid she thought somebody could have found out and called her a fake and she would be in big trouble. Parvana got into a fight with her sister and she stormed outside to buy the groceries that she couldn’t buy yesterday. Parvana got the cheapest tea, some onions and more food; she was very proud of herself when she got home. She saw her mother lying down and not saying anything, Parvana’s sister told her to fetch some water again because her sister had to clean the house and take care of their little brother.

In the evening Mrs. Weera left and the mother stood up and get to make supper, she was proud of Parvana but couldn’t look at her properly because of her deceased son, Hossian. At night Parvana’s sister Ali would fuss a little when she was sleeping Parvana heard her mother say “Go to sleep Hossian. Go to sleep, my son. 

Chapter 3:

Chapter three was about the continuous of the incident that happened to Parvana and how her father was stolen away. After her father was gone everyone was quiet, Parvana’s mother decided to clean up the house again. At night Parvana couldn’t sleep, her mother and her sister as well. Parvana would miss her father a lot and would always miss his quiet snoring. Parvana had other family members that were in prison and she kept on wondering what it was like in prison. In the middle of the night Parvana would always hope for her father to come back, she felt both hope and fear the reason why she felt fear was because she should the Tablians would come back to her house.

In the morning Parvana and her mother were about to go outside to get their father back, her mother was nervous because women were not allowed outside without a man, so Parvana decided that her mother would need a note from father, she asked her sister to forge it for her because her sister had writing that looked like an adults.  When Parvana and her mother were outside looking for her father, her mother would show everyone the photo of her dad. Photos were illegal so Parvana would be extremely nervous when her mother would always show the streets people the photo of her father.

When Parvana and her mother got to the prison her mother would yell at the solider and ask for her husband back. After yelling at the solider quite a couple of times more soldiers would come, Parvana asked her mother to stop but Parvana heard her father’s words in her head so she went along with her mother. After a while of screaming “I WANT MY HUSBAND/FATHER BACK!” The soldiers told them to shut up and started to beat them. Parvana saw that the soldiers started to hurt her mother so she told them to stop and that she would go home.

Chapter 4:

It was night time when Parvana and her mother came home, both of their feet were wrecked, bloody and had blisters. Parvana’s sisters would help her and her mother with their wrecked feet, afterwards her mother went to lay down where her father took naps and she would sob for a very long period of time.

The day after her mother would just lay there and not talk to anybody, she would only get up for bathroom breaks or for her tea, Parvana was lonely so she decided to play with her younger siblings and they would always ask where would father be or about her mother. After a few days the house started to stink, because of Parvana’s baby brother his diapers were piling up in the bathroom and their small window wouldn’t wash the stink away. After 4 days the family ran out of food, they told their mother this but she would just lay there and not do anything. Parvana’s sister demanded Parvana to go to the market and buy some food for her family, Parvana didn’t want to go outside because her feet still hurt, but after looking at her siblings she felt bad so she went to buy some groceries.

Chapter 5:

Chapter five was about how Parvana went to fetch her family some food. Parvana ordered her food from outside of the stands because women weren’t allow going out without a man. After Parvana went to get some bread for her family she decided to go get some vegetable for her family. She was stopped by a soldier, the solider hit her but she felt no pain inside of her, Parvana ran away from the solider as fast as she could with her newly bought bread.

While trying to run away she met up with her old gym teacher, Mrs. Weera. Mrs. Weera tried to stop Parvana from running away and told her it was alright, she out ran the solider, Mrs. Weera went with Parvana back to her home, she wanted to meet her mother and take care of her. After they reached Parvana’s house Mrs. Weera said that the whole house smelled really bad, she fetched Parvana to grab some water for the family, after 7 trips to the tap water and back Mrs. Weera made dinner for the family. Parvana’s mom got up and ate dinner, she was tired and depressed. Mrs. Weera and her grandmother stayed for the night, Parvana felt safe when she had Mrs. Weera by her side.

I found out that the girls name is Parvana or maybe I forgot what her name was in the beginning…. Parvana and her family were running out on water so Parvana’s mother asked her to fill up their water tank with more water; she has to make long trips to get water because their city or town doesn’t have any water taps/plumbing system. Parvana has many things to do for her family, most of her family are girls so they cannot help her, her father has no legs so he can’t help her properly. Parvana’s sister has long beautiful hair and she would always yell at her to go fetch the water. Parvana and her father would keep long distances away from each other because the Taliban would encourage the neighbours to spy on their neighbours.

Parvana had an older brother, he got killed by a land mine and her father and mother haven’t talked about him since because it would bring too many bad memories. Her older brother and older sister would always hang out with each other; Parvana was a bit jealous of her sister because mother always took her side.

Parvana was very intelligent her father used to tell her stories about the British and the Afghanistan’. One night her father was telling his family about the war of the British and the Afghanistan’s and how they succeeded in the war. Suddenly solders busted inside their house and took their father away, the girls were horrified because sometimes solders would take away women from their families and they were never to be seen again. The soldiers took away Parvana’s father and his last word to her was “Take care of the family” the soldiers then looked around everywhere for the book’s they did not like. Parvana wanted to save the books so she flung herself to the soldiers and they fell, they started to beat her but soon after they left, the whole family started to be scared and started to cry.

I feel really bad for Parvana’s family, everyone is always saying that their life sucks when clearly they can have anything that they want or need. If you compare Parvana’s family and wealthy people’s families whose life do you think is worse?

Chapter 1 was about some girl who lives in Afghan and the girls in her country cannot go to school, go to work, etc. The whole city was taken over by Religious priests; her father’s leg has been blown off by a bomb so she helps him around his work place because he could not handle it himself. Her family used to be wealthy and had some luxury items but the household got bombed, they moved to another location but it got bombed also, now they just live in a one room house with her whole family. Her father and mother had an education so they were bit quite a bit more than the rest of the citizens. That’s what I remember most, bye!

I’m about to start reading this book called, ‘The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis’ I think it’s about a girl who lives in Afghanistan and she meets a man, that’s all of I could think for now… I’ll talk about the first chapter soon, bye!