Parvana's Journey

Parvana is a girl in midst of a terrible war in Afghanistan. Her father has just died and she desperately wants to find her mother and siblings. She disguises herself as a boy in order to travel without great difficulty in her country. Everywhere there are enormous obstacles. She cannot find food. She cannot find clean water. She must travel across mine fields. She runs across a baby and a one-legged boy and a little girl who all travel with her, who all add to her burden of finding food and water and a safe place to pass the night.

It's a beautiful story of great struggle, told from the point of view of a child, who sees all the miseries of war and bravely asks why and dares to seek a life without the ongoing ugliness of war.

It is Parvana's memory of her friend who set off to find the purple fields of France that inspires her to go on, even after encountering the wailing woman, even after seeing the baby come close to death, even after trying to push the irritating one-legged boy on, even after walking for days with no food and no water.

This is a book I can see myself telling everyone I know that they must read.

A 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.