The third book in the internationally-bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and My Name Is Parvana
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. Shauzia finally decides to leave the camp and try her luck on the streets. She is determined to earn money to buy her passage out of the country. An incident with a dishonest man lands her in jail, where she spends the night, terrified and despairing, before well-meaning Americans she met when she was begging rescue her. They take her to their home in a residential part of Peshawar, and for a time she has a taste of a life where children have food to eat and warm beds and toys to play with, and she feels safe for the first time. 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.
This is a powerful and very human story of a feisty, driven girl who tries to take control of her own life.
A map, glossary and author's note provide young readers with background and context. Royalties from the sale of this book will go to Street Kids International.
DEBORAH ELLIS is the author of more than two dozen books, including The Breadwinner, which has been published in twenty-five languages and was recently adapted into a feature-length animated film and a graphic novel. She has won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Middle East Book Award, the Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. She has received the Ontario Library Association’s President’s Award for Exceptional Achievement, and she has been named to the Order of Canada. She has donated almost $2 million in royalties to organizations such as Women for Women in Afghanistan, UNICEF and Street Kids International.
[The books in the Breadwinner trilogy] are terrifying indictments of what war can bring to children and a powerful testaments to the ingenuity and strength of young people in times of terror.
Mud City is a gripping novel.
...a stunning portrait of a totally devastated world where children are forced to fend for themselves...
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