Books with author Deborah Ellis

The Breadwinner brings to life an issue that has recently exploded in the international media -- the reality of life under the Taliban. Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because he has a foreign education, her father is arrested by the Taliban, the religious group that controls the country. Since women cannot appear in public unless covered head to toe, or go to school, or work outside the home, the family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan. She cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy to earn money for her family. Parvana's determination to survive is the force that drives this novel set against the backdrop of an intolerable situation brought about by war and religious fanaticism.Deborah Ellis spent several months talking with women and girls in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Russia. This suspenseful, timely novel is the result of those encounters.

Finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, fifteen - year - old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war - torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle - the squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais. When an altercation at the soup kitchen ends up with him accidentally stabbing a policeman, Abdul has to flee, and in desperation he takes a spot in a small boat heading to England. A sudden skirmish leaves the boat stalled in the middle of the Channel, the pilot dead, and four young people remaining - Abdul, Rosalia, a Romani girl who has escaped from the white slave trade; Cheslav, gone AWOL from a Russian military school; and Jonah, the boat pilot's ten - year - old nephew. The four of them end up hijacking a yacht and, despite their fear and mistrust, they form a kind of makeshift family. And as the authorities close in on them, they find refuge in an unusual place - a child's secret cave on the English coast.

There is a lion in our village, and it is carrying away our children. At her father's funeral, Binti's grandmother utters the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear. Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS. Binti, her sister, and brother are separated and sent to the home of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence. Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servants. With her brother far away and her sister wallowing in her own sorrow, Binti can hardly contain her rage. She, Binti Phirim, was once a child star of a popular radio program. Now she is scraping to survive. Binti always believed she was special, now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan. Binti Phiri is not about to give up. Even as she clings to hope that her former life will be restored, she must face a greater challenge. If she and her brother and sister are to reunited, Binti Phiri will have to look outside herself and find a new way to be special. Compelling and uplifting, The Heaven Shop, is a contemporary novel that puts a very real face on the African AIDS pandemic, which to-date has orphaned more than 11 million African children. Inspired by a young radio performer the author met during her research visit to Malawi, Binti Phiri is a compelling character that readers will never forget. Awards and Nominations: Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award winner 2006 Winner of the 2005 Jane Addams Children's Book Award in the category of Honor Books for Older Children Shortlisted for the 2006 Alberta Children's Choice Book Award A Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards Honour Book for 2006 Foreword Magazine 2004 Book of the Year Award finalist A Children's Africana Book Awards (CABA) 2005 Honor Book for Older Readers A Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice 2005 Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for Young Adult/Middle Reader Books finalist Red Maple Book Award nominee 2005

Afghanistan: Parvana's father is arrested and taken away by the Taliban solders. Under Taliban law, women and girls are not allowed to leave home. Parvana, her mother and sisters must stay inside. Four days later, the food runs out. They face starvation. So Parvana must pretend to be a boy. It is a dangerous plan, but their only chance. In fear she goes out - and witnesses the horror of avoiding landmines, and the brutality of the Taliban. She suffers beatings and the desperation of trying to survive. But even in despair lies hope. The media is bombarding children with images. How are they to understand the reality of a girl's life under Taliban rule? This book tells about real life in Afghanistan. By an award-winning author, this novel tells the story of Parvana, who must disguise herself as a boy to save her mother and sisters from starvation. Based on impeccable research in an Aghan refugee camp. An honest, heart-breaking and positive story of an act of enormous courage and creative survival in an intolerable environment.

The first Art Encounters title to feature art outside the Western canonLittle is known about the fifteenth-century Persian painter Bizhad--we only know that he worked in what is now Afghanistan and Iran, and that he was the first artist to sign his works. Jackal in the Garden imagines Bizhad as an astoundingly gifted dreamer and contrasts him with a strong female protagonist, Anubis, a girl born disfigured into the harem of her vicious father. She must fight for survival--and her struggle leads her to Bizhad and the artists’ colony he leads. Both philosophers, they find common ground. Yet their different attitudes offer a sharp, unusual commentary on life, survival, and art that will resonate with young adult readers seeking their place in the world.• Award-winning author• Multicultural story features a strong female protagonist

The darker side of a friendship is portrayed by Jess, a seventeen-year-old who struggles to find the moral courage to remain loyal to her best friend Casey who has been accused of murdering an eight year old girl at summer camp. The town becomes a media circus and the pressure's far too great for Jess to cope. A person doesn't have to do anything important to get recognition anymore; it's enough to know someone who does. Parasitic fame. Casey was more than just a dependable camp counselor dedicated to her little buddies in Cabin Three. She was a brilliant student looking forward to a scholarship and a future career in entomology. Casey wasn't the kind of girl who would be stuck in a town like Galloway the rest of her life. She was really going places. And nobody knew this better than Jess, Casey's best friend. So how could a girl like Casey be arrested for the murder of a young camper under her care... Jess believes her friend is innocent and that the real killer will be caught; but in the meantime, she finds herself the reluctant center of attention. After all, she was also a counselor in Cabin Three. Jess must know something...right? Readers will readily sympathize with Jess, whose life begins to spin out of control. But award-winning author Deborah Ellis brings much more to the character of her complex and troubled narrator, who may not be entirely reliable. As the events surrounding the final weeks of August are slowly unveiled, readers will begin to question the very nature of friendship and how one finds the moral courage to be loyal, no matter what the consequences.

Fourteen-year-old Shauzia dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France, but it is hard to reconcile that dream with the terrible conditions of the Afghan refugee camp where she lives. Making things worse is the camp's leader, Mrs. Weera, whose demands on Shauzia make her need to escape all the more urgent. Her decision to leave necessitates Shauzia dress like a boy, as her friend Parvana did, to earn money to buy passage out. But her journey becomes a struggle to survive as she's forced to beg and pick through garbage, eventually landing in jail. An apparent rescue by a well-meaning American family gives her hope again, but will it last? And where will she end up? Mud City is the final book in the acclaimed trilogy that includes The Breadwinner (a best-seller) and Parvana's Journey. It paints a devastating portrait of life in refugee camps, where so many children around the world are trapped, some for their whole lives. But it also tells movingly of these kids' resourcefulness and strength, which help them survive these unimaginable circumstances.