My Name is Parvana

My Name Is Parvana by Deborah Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the original Breadwinner Trilogy: The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey, and Mud City. I have highly recommended these books to students (especially those in ESL) and have found that they loved the books, too. The trilogy focuses on Parvana and her friend, Shauzia, two young girls surviving in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Their lives and dilemmas are intricately revealed.

My Name is Parvana picks up the action a few years later. It seems that the book may have been written to tell fans what happened to these beloved characters. Even though Parvana and Shauzia are made up, it doesn't mean that their troubles are fictional.

In reading My Name is Parvana, I did have several teary moments; however, the novel still felt as if it were written to satisfy an audience more than the author.

Still, I would recommend fans of the earlier books to read this novel, to find out how things have turned out for Parvana, Shauzia and for real Afghani women in the "post-Taliban" era of Afghanistan.

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