Mud City (Shauzia)
Parvana's best friend, fourteen-year-old Shauzia, has escaped the misery of her life in Kabul only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. She still dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France.
Shauzia finally decides to leave the camp and try her luck on the streets. She is determined to earn money to leave Pakistan.
Peshawar is dangerous and full of desperately poor children like herself, but she has her dog Jasper.She figures she knows how to survive, but an incident with a dishonest man lands her in jail, where she spends the night, terrified and despairing, before she is rescued by well-meaning Americans.
They take her and Jasper to their home in a residential part of Peshawar, and for a time she has a taste of a life where children are safe and have food to eat. But just when she thinks the family will ask her to stay with them, disaster ensues, and Shauzia finds herself driven back to the refugee camp, where she discovers the old choices are not so easy any more.
Please Note: This companion book is also published under the title, Mud City.
About the Parvana (Breadwinner) Series
Books in series order
- 1.Parvana (The Breadwinner)(2000)
- 2.Parvana's Journey(2002)
- 3.Mud City (Shauzia)(2003)
- 4.Parvana's Promise (My Name is Parvana)(2012)
- 5.One More Mountain(2022)
Reading age: 10+ years
This series should be read in order.
Based on the true-life stories of women in Afghan refugee camps, the Parvana series is the inspiring story of Parvana, a young girl growing up in Afghanistan, as she struggles to make a life for herself and her family under the harsh rule of the Taliban.
Imagine living in a country where women and girls are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go out. This is the life of Parvana, a young girl growing up in Afghanistan under the control of an extreme religious military group.
When soldiers burst into her home and drag her father off to prison, Parvana is forced to take responsibility for her whole family, dressing as a boy to make a living in the marketplace of Kabul, risking her life in the dangerous and volatile city.
By turns exciting and touching, Parvana's story is one of courage in the face of overwhelming fear and repression.
Note: This series is also known as the Breadwinner.