Search results for ""Author Deborah Ellis""

Author Deborah Ellis travels across the continent, interviewing more than forty Native American kids and letting them tell their own stories. They come from all over the continent — from Iqaluit to Texas, Haida Gwaii to North Carolina. Their stories are sometimes heartbreaking; more often full of pride and hope. You’ll meet Tingo, who has spent most of his young life living in foster homes and motels, and is now thriving after becoming involved with a Native Friendship Center; Myleka and Tulane, young Navajo artists; Eagleson, who started drinking at age twelve but now continues his family tradition working as a carver in Seattle; Nena, whose Seminole ancestors remained behind in Florida during the Indian Removals, and who is heading to New Mexico as winner of her local science fair; Isabella, who defines herself more as Native than American; Destiny, with a family history of alcoholism and suicide, who is now a writer and pow-wow dancer. Deborah briefly introduces each child and then steps back, letting the kids speak directly to the reader. The result is a collection of frank and often surprising interviews with kids aged nine to eighteen, as they talk about their daily lives, about the things that interest them, and about how being Indigenous has affected who they are and how they see the world. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.9 Compare and contrast one author's presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).

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Based on interviews with a young woman forced to flee Iran because of her sexual orientation, Moon at Nine is a tense and riveting novel that shines a light on an issue of social injustice that continues to this day. Fifteen-year-old Farrin has grown up with secrets: ten years after the overthrow of the Shah, her aristocratic mother is still working against Iran's conservative revolutionary government. But when Farrin befriends Sadira, the intriguing and outgoing new student at her school for gifted girls, her own new secret is even more dangerous. Because the girls discover their relationship is more than just a friendship—and in Iran, being gay is punishable by death.

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A remarkable and thought-provoking new novel set on Israel’s West Bank, by the author of The Breadwinner.On Israel’s West Bank, a cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.Should she help him?After all, she’s just a cat.Or is she?It turns out that this particular cat is not used to thinking about anyone but herself. She was once a regular North American girl who only had to deal with normal middle-school problems — staying under the teachers’ radar, bullying her sister and the uncool kids at school, outsmarting her clueless parents.But that was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival.When the little boy is discovered, the soldiers don’t know what to do with him. Where are the child’s parents? Why has he been left alone in the house? It is not long before his teacher and classmates come looking for him, and the house is suddenly surrounded by Palestinian villagers throwing rocks, and the sound of Israeli tanks approaching.Not my business, thinks the cat. And then she sees a photograph, and suddenly she understands what happened to the boy’s parents, and why they have not returned. And as the soldiers begin to panic, and disaster seems certain, she knows that it is up to her to diffuse the situation.But what can a cat do? What can any one creature do?Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

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The third book in the internationally bestselling Breadwinner series. Parvana's best friend from The Breadwinner, Shauzia, has escaped the misery of her life in Kabul, only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. But she still dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France. But escape is not so easy. Once she leaves the camp, she has no money, no food, and only her dog Jasper for company. But Shauzia is determined to find a new future for herself. This is another deeply moving story from Deborah Ellis, which casts light for readers on the ongoing humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

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This beautiful graphic-novel adaptation of The Breadwinner animated film tells the story of eleven-year-old Parvana who must disguise herself as a boy to support her family during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city. Parvana's father -- a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed -- works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for having forbidden books, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food. As conditions for the family grow desperate, only one solution emerges. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner. Deborah Ellis's beloved novel has been adapted for film by Aircraft Pictures, Cartoon Saloon and Melusine Productions in association with Angelina Jolie's production company, jolie pas productions. The animated feature film, directed by Nora Twomey, will launch in the UK in 2018.

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Nine poignant and empowering short stories from the author of The Breadwinner.The seated child. With a single powerful image, Deborah Ellis draws our attention to nine children and the situations they find themselves in, often through no fault of their own. In each story, a child makes a decision and takes action, be that a tiny gesture or a life-altering choice.Jafar is a child laborer in a chair factory and longs to go to school. Sue sits on a swing as she and her brother wait to have a supervised visit with their father at the children’s aid society. Gretchen considers the lives of concentration camp victims during a school tour of Auschwitz. Mike survives seventy-two days of solitary as a young offender. Barry squirms on a food court chair as his parents tell him that they are separating. Macie sits on a too-small time-out chair while her mother receives visitors for tea. Noosala crouches in a fetid, crowded apartment in Uzbekistan, waiting for an unscrupulous refugee smuggler to decide her fate.These children find the courage to face their situations in ways large and small, in this eloquent collection from a master storyteller.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.9Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

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It's 2021, and the Taliban have regained power in Afghanistan. Parvana and Shauzia, the brave protagonists of The Breadwinner, must now flee to escape new dangers from an old enemy. It has been 20 years since Parvana and Shauzia had to disguise themselves as boys to support themselves and their families. But when the Taliban were defeated in 2001, it looked as if Afghans could finally rebuild their country. Many things have changed for Parvana since then. She has married Asif, who she met in the desert as she searched for her family when she was a child. She runs a school for girls. She has a son, Rafi, who is about to fly to New York, where he will train to become a dancer. While Asif tries to get Parvana's sister, Maryam, and Rafi on one of the last flights out of Kabul, the Taliban come to the school, and Parvana must lead the girls out of Green Valley and into the mountains. Deborah Ellis is an award-winning author, a feminist and a peace activist who has spent a lot of time in Pakistan, in Afghan refugee camps.

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Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award In this urban adventure story, Khyber, a smart, bold, eleven-year-old girl from a poor neighborhood, sets out to find her friend X, a mysterious homeless woman who has gone missing. The desperate search takes Khyber on a long, all-night odyssey that proves to be wilder than any adventure she has ever imagined.

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The fourth book in the internationally bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and Mud City. In this stunning sequel, Parvana, now fifteen, is found in a bombed-out school and held as a suspected terrorist by American troops in Afghanistan. The army major thinks she may be a terrorist working with the Taliban. Parvana does not respond to questions in any language and remains silent. As she waits for foreign military forces to determine her fate, she remembers the past four years of her life. Reunited with her mother and sisters, she has been living in a village where her mother has finally managed to open a school for girls. But even though the Taliban has been driven from the government, the country is still at war, and many continue to view the education and freedom of girls and women with suspicion and fear.

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'Diego had never been in the jungle before. He'd lived with his family high in the hills, and then he was a prison kid, a city kid. His nights were bare light bulbs burning, women and children crying, guards yelling and keys clanging. He hated it, but it was what he was used to . . .' A simple error of judgement hurls Diego into a nightmare. He's been living in prison with his mother and sister, looking after them and earning money whenever he can. Until the day he accidentally breaks the rules. Suddenly the family are in trouble, and Diego needs money to save them. So when one of his friends tells Diego that he knows a job that will make them both rich, Diego gives into temptation. But the job is far different from the one he'd imagined, and Diego soon finds himself in the heart of the Bolivian jungle and the clutches of men who produce drugs for a living . . .

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Recommended by Malala Yousafzai, The Breadwinner is the first book in Deborah Ellis's bestselling series set in Afghanistan. This award-winning novel explores loyalty, survival, family and friendship under extraordinary circumstances. Parvana's father is arrested and taken away by Taliban soldiers. Under Taliban law, women and girls are not allowed to leave the house on their own. Parvana, her mother, and sisters are prisoners in their own home. With no man to go out to buy food, they face starvation. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana must transform herself into a boy, and become the breadwinner to save her family. It is a dangerous plan, but their only chance. In fear, she goes out, and witnesses the horror of landmines, the brutality of the Taliban, and the desperation of a country trying to survive. But even in despair lies hope . . .

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