When the war in Afghanistan captured international headlines in October 2001, adults had trouble making sense of the reported images, the refugee situation and the plight of Afghan women under Taliban rule. Rendering the complexity of the situation for children, the audience for Deborah Ellis's novel The Breadwinner, posed an even greater challenge.
Ellis was "discovered" by Canadian children's publisher Groundwood Books during a contest for new writers on the occasion of the company's 20th anniversary, in 1998. She went on to win a Governor General's Award (similar to the Newbery or Carnegie Medal) for her first YA novel Looking for X (about life in an urban housing project), and currently has four titles in print with the house.
Writing about her experiences for a young audience was not on Ellis's mind when she visited Afghan settlements, homes and refugee camps in Pakistan and Russia in 1998 and 1999. She was traveling with the organization Women for Women in Afghanistan, and was there to gather first-person accounts from women for her adult nonfiction book Women of the Afghan War.
Ellis's quiet voice became passionate when she shared memories of her time there. "I remember, very strongly, the weight of the oppression against women. Their safety was compromised simply by talking to me. I kept my head covered out of respect for the women, so I wouldn't look too strange."
During her research in Kabul, the idea of a book for younger readers took shape. "I interviewed a woman whose daughter was still back in Afghanistan," she recalled. "She told me she had cut off her hair and was pretending to be a boy, and therefore supporting her family. The story knocked me out."
For Ellis, a seasoned political activist, sharing the story was about demystifying the news. "On TV, we don't see people as individuals," she said. "They're either victims or criminals—they're not real people. By putting [these refugees' tales] into a story that kids could relate to and think about, hopefully that would allow them to understand a little bit about what life is like for other people."
Published in spring 2001, The Breadwinner won accolades and became an international bestseller; translated into 17 languages, it has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. But it had a slow start, according to Patsy Aldana, Groundwood's publisher, although some foreign rights had already been sold before world events changed. "We didn't really think it was going to sell very well," Aldana said. "We though it would do okay, but it did actually sell a lot better than we anticipated initially. And then after 9/11, there was a boom."
With the novel, and its sequel, Parvana's Journey, the following year, Ellis cracked Amazon's top 10 list for children's books in 2002; the books have been featured on National Public Radio and the Today Show, in Newsweek and the Washington Post, to name a few. Parvana's Journey also won the 2003 Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award, an award given by the Ontario Arts Council and Canadian Booksellers Association, and the prestigious Jane Addams Children's Book Award.
Ellis finds the overwhelming response North American children have to her characters deeply satisfying. She is particularly pleased to receive a packet of letters from fifth-graders in California who studied The Breadwinner in class. "At the back of my mind while I was writing,"
Ellis recalled, "I would hope that they would remember Parvana as they were growing up, and remember that decisions that are made have an impact on real people. And when they get into the position of making those decisions, that they would remember her."
Aldana attributes the series' success of the story to its huge word of mouth among children. "Kids love these characters; the politics are secondary, I think," she said. "You can write all the high-minded political books you want, but if you don't get children reading them, it doesn't matter!"
"At the time [after 9/11], teachers were scrambling for something they could use as a learning tool that was topical at the same time," said Trudy Carey, manager and buyer for Woozles children's bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "And Ellis is a good writer. It's a simple story but absorbing; engaging kids on a global and multicultural level, but it's not a boring history lesson. Parents are delighted that their children want to read it."
Mud City is the final installment of the trilogy, out this fall, in which Parvana's best friend Shauzia, 14, decides to brave the world beyond the muddy walls of the refugee camp. Ellis said that the trilogy evolved organically from the original story. "It raised so many other questions in my mind, such as once this girl [masquerading as a boy] becomes too old to be able to pretend to be a boy, how would she manage? It was a story I found very compelling and wanted to explore." Her publisher agreed. "The idea of a trilogy was compelled by the books themselves," Aldana said. "It fulfills the curiosity of the reader. Apart from the topics, they really want to know what happens to Parvana."
Ellis demurs at the suggestion of a fourth book to add to the series, countering that she is currently working on a book of oral histories for young people. "I spent last December interviewing Israeli and Palestinian kids, talking about who they are, what their lives are like in that place." Three Wishes: Conversations with Palestinian and Israeli Children will be published in spring 2004.
Early on, Ellis decided to donate all the royalties from the first two books to Women for Women in Afghanistan. In her words, "I didn't feel right going over there saying, tell me all about your pain and your sorrow so that I can make money. Plus, as a political activist, you want to try to improve the world, to make conditions better. So it's a small amount of money for the work that is needed, but for the grassroots projects we do, it makes a big difference." Royalties from The Breadwinner alone have generated over C$100,000 for the organization. Proceeds went to a women's center in the camps and to schools dedicated to education for girls. Like Shauzia's quest in Mud City, the organization's efforts have moved outside the camp gates to projects like a shelter for battered women and rebuilding a library. Royalties from this third book, which Ellis says is more of an urban story, are going to Street Kids International.
Groundwood has had the good fortune of publishing uncannily timely and topical YA books before. Last fall it re-released Janne Carlsson's Camel Bells, the Swedish winner of the International Fiction contest, which was first published in 1987 and set during the Russian invasion of pre-Taliban Afghanistan in 1979.
The Breadwinner trilogy has also made Groundwood Books much more visible in the U.S. "A lot of booksellers who might not otherwise have known who we were," Aldana said, "come up to our booth at shows now to see what we have."
