A young teen is found wandering around in the ruins of a bombed out school building in Afghanistan, and is picked up by American forces. She refuses to speak to the soldiers even though she knows English and is put in an isolation cell for being a suspected terrorist. The narration weaves between her interrogation and the events that led up to the school bombing.When I picked up this book I didn't realize that it was part of a series, so many times the main character will refer to people or events that happened in other books. While the reader can follow this story without reading the past book, you do get a sense that you missed parts that belong to the bigger picture. Especially, since there were a few times when a side character would just show up and save the day. It really felt like this book was a little thin on plot and was mostly trying to tie up loose ends from the other books in the series.
Still, the writing was descriptive, and I felt I got a sense of the time and place that this girl was living in. I also loved the strength and courage that the main character Parvana shows to survive all of the things that happen in her life. It looks like the author Deborah Ellis has been following and writing about the changes that have been occurring in Afghanistan since the early 2000's (after the fall of the Taliban); with an emphasis on women's rights in the region. I am really looking forward to read the first book in this series called "The Breadwinner"; and Ellis has a nonfiction book called "The Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-Ending War" (2012) where she interviewed real kids living in Afghanistan and shows how current events have affected them.
Due to some discussions of torture and violence (which you really cannot gloss over when you are talking about living in a war zone) this book is probably for older "Tweens", maybe 5th grade and up.
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