DEBORAH ELLIS

Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistans capital city. Parvanas 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 the crime of having a foreign education, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food.